Review: ‘The Perfect Host’ serves up a twisted comedy thriller
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David Hyde Pierce shines as "The Perfect Host".
Title: The Perfect Host
Directed by: Nick Tomnay
Starring: David Hyde Pierce, Clayne Crawford
Starts off with a great taste, but it’s a bit overcooked
“The Perfect Host” is a twisted movie, in more ways than one.
It’s part crime caper, part psychological thriller. John (played by Crawford, whose slicked-back hair makes him look like a cross between Ray Liotta and Leonardo DiCaprio) is a career criminal on the run from the law for a bank heist. He’s also a bit crafty, sifting through a Los Angeles resident’s mail to put together a back story to get himself into the home. He cons his way into the abode of one Warwick Wilson (Pierce), a proper gentleman preparing for a dinner party.
John may have Warwick fooled, but several tense moments have him worried that his cover will be blown. Inevitably, though, John lets it slip that he’s the escaped criminal the cops are after, and he takes Warwick hostage with a butcher knife from the kitchen. Even under the circumstances, though, Warwick seems more concerned with keeping the place tidy for his dinner guests than he is with whatever threat the criminal poses. John doesn’t realize until it’s too late that the man he’s dealing with is not just some quiet, upper-class socialite. Rather, as the drugs in his wine start to kick in, John awakens to the fact that he’s walked into the home of a rather sick, twisted individual.
It’s hard to say much about “The Perfect Host” without giving too much away. It is a film of surprises, which in a way is its greatest weakness. The bizarre coincidences mount ever higher, especially in the film’s final act, that it becomes a bit hard to follow and even harder to swallow.
Even so, the twisted plot is delivered well. Pierce’s Warwick comes off much like his role as Niles Crane in the sitcom “Frasier”, if Maris finally pushed him off the deep end. He engages in humiliation and torture, at times verging on unwatchable (though not nearly as bad as “torture porn” such as the Saw movies or “The Human Centipede”). It’s clear he’s not right in the head from early on, such as when he responds to John’s threats by replying, “You can’t kill me, I’m having a dinner party,” or when he rushes over to John’s bleeding foot with a wet cloth not to clean the wound but rather to clean his wood floor.
Warwick is portrayed with such manic zeal that he comes off as unpredictable, and rightly so. He exhibits the sort of insanity – and exhibits it well, thanks to Pierce’s acting – where he follows a personal set of standards to the point of obsession. He’s clearly deranged, but he does not recognize his own derision, even when John plainly articulates it to him.
If you can’t tell, I am of the opinion that Pierce stole the show. Crawford does a decent job playing the gruff burglar in a tight situation, but he doesn’t get much opportunity to emote when he spends most of his screen time drugged up and tied to a chair. Even so, and amid the twistedness of it all, “The Perfect Host” drops in a few nuggets of humor. John gets more than a few opportunities to issue witty comebacks to his sadistic captor, and Pierce’s mannerisms add some levity to his character’s persona.
On top of the thriller of John’s attempt to escape the madhouse that is Warwick’s bungalow, there’s a somewhat thin crime story going on. As John endures drugged cocktails and lacerations, a sideplot is unfolding in which a couple of detectives are piecing together the aforementioned bank heist. Through drug-induced flashbacks, the reader is presented with a motivation for John’s actions, as well as a few hints that perhaps he is not entirely in control of the situation. In this fashion, also, the movie sets up a sort of theme, comparing both John’s struggle and the crime itself with the game of chess – and, at one point, involving an actual game of chess.
Who is the king and who is the pawn isn’t entirely clear until the end – though the denouement may leave some viewers feeling like a bad hangover after a dinner party.
I’m including a video of the film’s trailer, but know that it is a bit spoilerish. Even so, the big reveal is just one of several twists, and it comes up fairly early in the movie anyway. If you watch the trailer and think there’s nothing more to learn about the film, you’re missing out.
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Nice post! I love twisty films. I’ll look this up on my Roku.
PS Thanks for not giving the twists away.
Of course! It’s more entertaining if you don’t know what’s coming. Also, it’s available to stream on Netflix. That’s where I got a hold of it, anyway.