There’s a bit of Baby Driver in Daniel Roher’s Tuner, though it’s far more grounded in approach—at least enough to draw subtle comparisons: a skilled apprentice with an unusual hearing condition who, through a twist of fate, becomes the ideal candidate to assist in criminal activity to pay off a father figure’s debts. Though Tuner doesn’t reinvent the wheel (or in this case, the piano), it makes the most of a very tight script with excellent performances, strong pacing, and a fun balance of genre tones that makes this mid-budget crime-thriller drama play a happy tune.

Tuning pianos might be work for young Niki White (The White Lotus’s Leo Woodall), but it’s also the closest he gets to a musical life that ended too early. A former musical prodigy, Niki no longer feels comfortable playing the piano due to a hearing disorder that renders normal sounds unbearably loud to his ears and requires him to wear specialized earplugs in public. Working under the crotchety but lovable tuner Harry Horowitz (Dustin Hoffman), the two spend their days traversing Manhattan and serving clients, many of whom don’t recognize the importance of keeping one’s piano in order. But Harry cares, as does a music student named Ruthie (Havana Rose Liu), whom Niki develops a crush on, earning Harry’s enthusiastic approval to pursue the romance. At the same time, Harry is a bit stubborn and showing early signs of dementia. When his wife, Marla (Tovah Feldshuh), discovers he forgot the combination to the safe containing his hearing aid, Niki manages to crack it at home thanks to some accessible YouTube videos.

This ear for music and lock combinations comes in handy when, working late one night, Niki discovers his rich client’s security team trying to rob a house safe upstairs. To get them out of the house, he promptly opens the safe in record time, impressing their leader, Uri (Lior Raz), enough to be offered a place on the team. Criminal life doesn’t interest Niki, but when Harry is hospitalized and Marla reveals how much they owe in health insurance payments, he decides to put his newfound talent to use—so long as no one gets hurt. That goal proves more and more challenging as his work, crime, and love life gradually intersect.

Directing fiction might be new territory for Roher, a documentary filmmaker best known for projects like Navalny. Yet Roher’s style lends itself well to Tuner, providing an on-the-street vibe that captures the beauty and non-stop commotion of Big Apple life. Pairing Lowell A. Meyer’s cinematography with immersive sound design allows for clever storytelling tricks, such as layering a musical thesis Ruthie plays over a tense safecracking moment. The documentary-style format also benefits Niki’s arc, painting intimate connections with his mentor that make you understand why he’d risk his life to ease Harry’s burden.

So enthralling are Tuner’s drama and rom-com elements that its crime-thriller side occasionally feels like an afterthought. Not that it lacks engaging moments, but Niki’s dynamic with Uri follows familiar clichés of working for a thief whose volatile side becomes increasingly evident once our hero decides he wants out. It doesn’t help that one particular heist—involving, of all things, cryptocurrency—sets up an unexpected conflict between the two men, the resolution of which comes dangerously close to feeling like a plot hole. The movie builds tension effectively, but it’s clearly less interested in exploring New York’s criminal underworld than in how these decisions threaten Niki on a personal level.

What holds the movie together is the script and the cast, who further elevate the material with tremendously believable performances. Demonstrating equal parts talent and recklessness, Woodall plays Niki as a thoughtful soul whose perfect pitch belies a yearning for a profession denied to him. This makes his scenes with Hoffman an excellent match, capturing an aged veteran giving a talented youngster helpful pointers. Like much of Tuner, you’ve probably seen this happen before, but that doesn’t stop the film’s moving parts from harmoniously coming together.