‘Tuner’ review: The most unique NYC crime thriller in a long time

Just when you thought NYC crime thrillers had run out of new ideas, here comes “Tuner,” a refreshingly inventive and captivating thug movie that focuses on compelling and rich characters over chases and shootouts.

What sets director Daniel Roher’s film apart from, say, last year’s overpraised “Caught Stealing” with Austin Butler? The main man’s backstory, for one.

Niki (Leo Woodall), a former music prodigy and current apprentice piano turner, suffers from hyperacusis, a condition that makes him extremely sensitive to loud noises. Hearing an ambulance siren, for example, will lead to excruciating pain and ringing ears. He could even pass out cold. That’s no bueno for anybody who spends even a minute in New York.

What Niki, who wears specialized headphones, discovers by happenstance is that the disorder that makes it extremely difficult for him to lead an ordinary life also gives him an unmatchable knack for cracking safes. How fun is that?

Late one night, while he’s working on a ritzy customer’s piano when the owners aren’t home, he overhears a heist in progress upstairs. Niki’s goaded into opening the safe by the clumsy robbers — Uri (Lior Raz), Benny (Nissan Sakira) and Yoni (Gil Cohen) — which he does with shocking ease. From then on, he’s caught up in the lucrative world of high-end thievery.

If you can picture Woodall from “The White Lotus” or as Bridget Jones’ boy toy in the most recent sequel, you know he’s not exactly a nerd who buries himself in books. He tends to skew “hunk with confidence.”

The fact that his latest character is jacked, artistically inclined, sensitive and uniquely suited to stealing Rolexes and wads of cash makes for all sorts of enticing contradictions. And this is the young British actor at his most inviting, tortured and terrific.

But beyond the after-dark break-ins is the tender story of his ailing repair shop boss Harry — played with grandpa softness and deli-counter humor by Dustin Hoffman — and his wife, Marla (Tovah Feldshuh). Their thread of the film has a totally different feel from the seedy thefts.

This side of “Tuner” is a kind of autumn, old-world New York movie, like “Moonstruck.” For a while anyway. The couple have fallen on hard times and have to pay Harry’s medical bills. Niki’s new venture could help them out, or get them entangled in a nasty underworld.

And his moonlighting gig will surely get in the way of his budding romance with piano student Ruthie (Havana Rose Liu), from whom he hides his dangerous — and perhaps deadly — secret.

Another deviation from the typical crime movie: Roher, who has previously directed excellent documentaries such as “Navalny,” builds a lively world of sounds: the clicking and spinning of vault gears, the lush swell of piano, the taking apart of a baby grand, Niki’s muffled perspective caused by his cans and earplugs and the punishing shriek of an airhorn.

That carefully calibrated cacophony energizes “Tuner”’ and makes it all the more gripping, claustrophobic and pulse-pounding.

While there are the expected gunshots and resulting pools of blood, the movie’s most violent weapon turns out to be noise. Eventually, I began to view a smoke alarm with the same threat level as a machete. Conversely, the clatter and racket are also its most beautifully expressive paintbrush.

Roher, in his impressive first go at a narrative film, has perfectly paired original storytelling, layered performances and borderline immersive audio. Fine-tuned, if you like.