Dustin Hoffman, Leo Woodall
“TUNER” My rating: B- (At the Glenwood Arts)
109 minutes | MPAA rating: R
Part noir crime thriller, part love story, part buddy comedy, Daniel Roher’s “Tuner” overcomes a plot thick with unlikely coincidence to deliver a generally satisfying suspense yarn peppered with oddball moments.
Niki (Leo Woodall) is a baby-faced piano tuner in the Big Apple. He’s technically an apprentice to old timer Harry Horowitz (Dustin Hoffman), but in reality Harry does little more than sit around spouting dietary conspiracy theories. Niki does all the real work.
Turns out he’s ideally suited for the job. Niki was a child prodigy on the keyboard but developed a hearing issue that forced him to give up playing. Not deafness…just the opposite. His hearing is so acute that everyday sounds are painful. He goes through life wearing a pair of noise-dampening headphones.
The screenplay by Roher and Robert Ramsey begins as an affable study of friendship. Harry and his wife (Tovah Feldshuh) regard Niki as the son they never had. There’s a good deal of familial kvetching.
On one of his jobs Niki encounters Ruthie (Havana Rose Liu), a conservatory student in piano and composing. Little by little they hit it off.
Conflict arrives in the person of Uri (Lior Ray), whose home security firm is basically a front for a mini crime syndicate. It’s all too easy for Uri to bypass the systems he installed and rob his clients. Except that he needs someone who can open safes and lockboxes. Turns out that Niki’s sensitive ears are just right for hearing the tumblers click into place.
Now our hero isn’t a dummy. He knows this is dangerous business. But Uri can be quite charming and/or threatening and when Harry ends up in the hospital Niki decides to keep cracking safes until the bills are paid. Of course the thuggish Uri has his own ideas for Niki’s career in crime.
“The Player” musters a good deal of tension, but the real meat here is Woodall’s low-keyed performance. Niki’s handicap has made him something of a loner…not exactly anti-social but borderline. Which makes his journey into romantic love all the more affecting.
Sally Field
“REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES” My rating: B (Netflix)
111 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13
I don’t know what bugs me the most: that “Remarkable Bright Creatures” is so overtly manipulative or that most of the time that manipulation works.
In any case, Olivia Newman’s adaptation of Shelby Van Pelt’s best selling novel gives us national treasure Sally Field in one of her best roles in years. Hard to complain too much with that on the table.
Field plays Tova Sullivan, a widow in a coastal town in the Pacific Northwest and the night custodian at the local aquarium. Tova has plenty of elderly gal pals (Kathy Baker, Joan Chen, Beth Grant) but her best buddy is Marcellus, the giant pacific octopus with an uncanny ability to slip out of his tank and go on nocturnal prowls around the building.
As was the case with the novel, Marcellus is the narrator of this tale (voice provided by an uncredited Alfred Molina), though for some reason I found this device worked better on the printed page than it does here.
The heart of the yarn lies with Cameron (Lewis Pullman), a young nomad living out of his minivan who becomes Tova’s assistant. He’s a bit creeped out by the computer-generated Marcellus but he and Tova form a bond. She lost her own son years before in a boating accident and Cameron allows her to indulge some of her long-suppressed maternal instincts.
Turns out the old lady and her young helpmate are connected in ways neither could have anticipated…although Marcellus the octopus has it all figured out long before the pokey humans come around.
I cannot count the number of acquaintances who’ve told me how much they love this movie.
I enjoyed it, but with reservations.
Sienna Miller, Wendell Pierce, John Krasinski
“TOM CLANCY’S JACK RYAN: GHOST WAR” My rating: C (Prime Video)
105 minutes |MPAA rating: R
I’m a sucker for both John Krasinski and Wendell Pierce, but there’s no escaping the by-the-numbers blah-ness of “Jack Ryan: Ghost War.”
Scripted by Krasinski, Aaron Rabin and Noah Oppenheim, and directed by Andrew Bernstein, “Ghost War” is a hodgepodge of spy movie cliches held up by a script so fuzzy I’m still not sure exactly who is doing what and why.
As I understand it, former British spy Liam Crown (Max Beesley) has started murdering British and American agents because he misses the good old days when spies could kill with impunity. No codes of conduct, no ethical review boards, no red tape.
Apparently Crown intends to use his mercenary army (where does he get the money?) to force the good guys (the CIA, MI6) to return to their scorched earth policy of bygone days.
No, it didn’t make any sense to me, either.
Krasinski reprises his role as reluctant action hero Jack Ryan, while Pierce is his boss at the Agency. Both are imminently watchable but have to work way too hard at selling this nonsense.
Sienna Miller pops up as a tough-as-nails British operative, but the script really doesn’t give her much to do. Michael Kelly is back as Ryan’s wise-cracking sidekick.
There’s some nice scenery (Dubai, London) and a nifty car chase through crowded city streets.
But mostly “Jack Ryan: Ghost War” feels like a franchise on its last legs.
| Robert W. Butler
Butler's Cinema Scene 