Tuner (film)

Niki White is the apprentice to New York City piano tuner Harry Horowitz, a friend of his late father. Once a gifted musician, Niki suffers from hyperacusis and can no longer play piano, wearing ear protection at all times against loud noises. After Harry forgets the combination to his safe, Niki teaches himself to open it with his heightened hearing, discovering a talent for safe-cracking.

While tuning at a music conservatory, Niki meets Ruthie, a driven student pianist. At a wealthy client’s home, he interrupts a trio of Israeli thieves and breaks into the safe for them, earning a job offer from their leader, Uri. With Harry’s encouragement, Niki strikes up a romance with Ruthie after repairing her treasured piano, and reveals it took years of exposure therapy to manage his sensitivity to sound.

When Harry is hospitalized after a heart attack, Niki accepts Uri’s offer, determined to save Harry and his wife Marla from debt. Proving himself on Uri’s own safe, Niki joins Uri, his accomplice Yoni, and nephew Benny as they use their security company to rob wealthy homes. Overcoming Ruthie’s misgivings about their relationship, Niki gives her a stolen watch and introduces her to Marla and the bedridden Harry, secretly paying his hospital bills.

Uri enlists Niki to open a safe for a pair of Korean gangsters, retrieving the password to their uncle’s cryptocurrency wallet. The uncle arrives, holding everyone at gunpoint and forcing Niki to eat the only copy of the password, but is shot dead by Benny. Niki flees, discovering that the wallet holds close to $18 million. Harry dies, and Uri surprises Niki at shiva, demanding his help to steal the digital key to the uncle’s money.

A grieving Niki decides not to join the robbery, but Ruthie’s anxiety about her upcoming performance and his own resentments lead them to lash out at each other. Storming out of her apartment, Niki is captured by Uri’s crew. Disoriented by an air horn, he is forced to open the uncle’s safe before racing to Ruthie’s performance of her original work, with renowned composer Marius Maissner in the audience.

Maissner invites Ruthie to join a new project as his assistant, but recognizes her watch as his grandmother’s heirloom, which survived the Holocaust alongside his grandfather’s watch before they were stolen from his safe. Niki arrives and is confronted by Ruthie, and admits the truth to Maissner. Assuring him that Ruthie is blameless, Niki offers to recover his grandfather’s watch in exchange for not involving the police.

Caught breaking into Uri’s safe, Niki begs for the watch and reveals its history. He convinces Benny and Yoni, but Uri viciously beats him, rupturing his eardrums with the air horn. Waking up at the hospital, Niki discovers that Uri cut off his earlobe but left him the watch, and is now partially deafened but no longer needs earplugs to tolerate noise.

Leaving Marla his ill-gotten money, Niki delivers the watch to a grateful Maissner, who leaves him and Ruthie alone together. As an emotional Ruthie looks on, Niki gives a virtuoso performance at the piano for the first time in years, and declares it needs tuning.

• Leo Woodall as Niki White
• Dustin Hoffman as Harry Horowitz
• Havana Rose Liu as Ruthie
• Lior Raz as Uri
• Tovah Feldshuh as Marla
• Jean Reno as Marius Maissner
• Nissan Sakira as Benny
• Gil Cohen as Yoni

In August 2024, Leo Woodall and Dustin Hoffman joined the cast of the film, with Daniel Roher set to direct from a screenplay he co-wrote with Robert Ramsey, and Black Bear Pictures and Elevation Pictures producing.^[3] In October 2024, Havana Rose Liu, Jean Reno, Lior Raz, and Tovah Feldshuh joined the cast.^[4]

Principal photography began in October 2024, in Toronto.^[5][6][7]

Tuner was released in limited theaters on May 22, 2026, before expanding wide on May 29.^[8] It had its world premiere at the 52nd Telluride Film Festival.^[9] It also screened at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 8, 2025.^[10][11] In September 2025, Black Bear Pictures acquired the U.S. distribution rights.^[12]