There's no way to sugar-coat it, and there's no way to ignore it - but there was absolutely no denying that this movie takes a significant amount of inspiration from Edgar Wright's Baby Driver in both plot and structure. The premise itself is an interesting one on the surface, due to our main protagonist having a hyper-sensitive hearing condition commonly known as hyperacusis, it allows him with the skill to crack open safes with total ease - leading him to be recruited by a group of criminals as they venture into a life of crime - but can he balance his criminal life with his personal life? There, we have our story.
Now, is it a crime to be inspired by one's work? Absolutely not. Many movies have their own identical twin to some extent; however, it always comes down to one thing. Execution - and as far as Tuner went... it truly fails to be something fresh and original.
Let's start with the good – the sound design was easily the standout and truly the most effective element of the story. Having hyperacusis causes environmental sounds to come across extremely loud and painful to those affected by it - with that being said, the movie doesn't just allow us to see the world from his perspective, instead it invites us to also hear the world from his perspective. When he's in pain, you feel it. When he goes deaf, you also feel deaf - making for very intense moments - and for one hell of an immersive experience.
Now onto the bad, the movie's biggest issue is how much it tries to do it all in one go – it aims to be this gritty crime thriller mixed with being a rom-com, yet it doesn't feel that way in the slightest. Whenever the story would go back to focusing on the romance between Niki and his love interest (which is most of the story), you don't really buy their chemistry - and it comes across feeling forced - it's as if the romantic subplot seems to solely exist for the purpose of giving our protagonist something to lose, while he consistently makes dumb decision after dumb decision, making it very difficult to actual care for the character or for the people he holds dear.
From a certain point in the story, you know exactly where the story is heading and exactly how things will turn out. When a story feels way too predictable, how can you expect an audience to be surprised by anything that happens on screen? You can't - and sadly, that's how I felt while watching it.
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