Get an earful of this – finding the right note

The last time we saw a ‘good’ thief in a film was Channing Tatum in Roofman. Leo Woodall looks somewhat like Tatum in Daniel Roher’s Tuner (15). He has the same attractively lazy style of acting as him as well, and even wears a similar tracksuit. The ‘double life’ plot of the film has similarities to Roofman too.

Niki (Woodall) used to be a gifted pianist before he succumbed to hyperacusis. This is a rare aural condition which gives him heightened hearing. It means he can’t stand any kind of loud noise. He has to wear earpieces to protect him from it.

On the credit side, it helps him tune pianos. This is what he now does for a living. His hyper-sensitivity to sound comes in handy when he’s asked to break into the safe of his friend/ boss Harry (Dustin Hoffman). Harry is a bit scatty. He’s left his hearing aids in there by accident and forgotten the combination.

It comes in even handier when a bunch of criminals led by Uri (Lior Raz) become aware of it, thereafter recruiting him for their thieving escapades.

Niki is short of money so he agrees to open safes for them. He gives an expensive watch to his girlfriend Ruthie (Havana Rose Liu), who’s also a pianist, with the proceeds, and also uses his ill-gotten gains to help Harry out financially after he lands himself in hospital.

When Niki first comes into contact with Uri he thinks he’s on the level. Later he comes to see him as an OCD (Ordinary Decent Criminal) who only robs people that are so rich they don’t know what to do with their money. But then Uri’s true nature becomes apparent…

This is a lovely film for all of its 110 minute running time even if most of the characters and situations are derivative of God knows how many features from Hollywood’s golden era: the ‘cute meet’ of Niki and Ruthie, their initial indifference to one another morphing into a love you just know is going to happen, Harry’s avuncular mentoring of Niki, his mensch wife Marla (Tovah Feldshuh), the oleaginous Uri and his moronic henchmen.

Never mind such stick-in-the-teeth cliches. They’re played out with such Gershwinesque charm you hardly notice. You’ll find yourself rooting for the perfectionistic Ruthie to shine at her upcoming concert, and for Niki to put his Robin Hood days behind him and get back to doing what he does best.

The film’s downbeat endline – after a cathartic finale – is worthy of Billy Wilder’s ones at the end of Some Like It Hot (‘Nobody’s perfect’) and The Apartment (‘Shut up and deal.’)

Hoffman’s part is small but no less effective for that. He started off his career with a comedy (The Graduate). Why shouldn’t he end it with one? You could pick a worse work than this to go out on, Dustie.

And Ms Liu is shaping up nicely to become the new Sandra Oh.