The Perfect Host (**½)
Directed by: Nick Tomnay
Starring: David Hyde Pierce, Clayne Crawford, Nathaniel Parker, Tyrees
Allen, Megahn Perry, Helen Reddy, Annie Campbell
Seen: August 2nd 2011
**½ Out of ****
The Perfect Host is, apart from the odd story, about two things: characters
turning the tables on each other as often as possible; and evisceration of any
memory of David Hyde Pierce as Frasier’s Niles Crane. It’s so off centre that,
at times, the laughter might have been more out of discomfort or uncertainty
than actual mirth. That is not to say that it’s a bad movie, it’s just a little
strange.
When John Taylor (Crawford) robs a local bank, he is injured but seems
to have quite an escape plan aligned. He is then robbed of his wallet as he’s
looking for medical supplies and subsequently he is forced to hole up
somewhere, anywhere, in an attempt to avoid the authorities. Through a bit of
mailbox snooping and smart(ish) talk, he gets himself into the home of Warwick
Wilson (Pierce), who is friendly enough to take John in while preparing for a dinner
party he is hosting. John’s abrasive nature seems to intimidate Warwick, but
soon enough the tables are turned as you realise that Warwick is not what he at
first seemed to be. Slowly but inexorably the two characters are revealed to be
more than any first impressions they may have left, and any sympathies you may
feel for some characters slowly evaporates while for others it grows
proportionally as the dinner party happily continues, almost disconcertingly so.
To say anything else regarding story would be to give away a lot that
the movie requires to work, so I’m keeping mum. David Hyde Pierce is, interesting
and almost unsettling, to say the least, in his complete departure from what
the world has come to know him as – Niles Crane in the long running TV sitcom
Frasier. Clayne Crawford exhibits an uncanny ability to act inside a moment –
letting the viewer almost forget what his character was 10 minutes ago, greatly
assisting with the switching of sympathetic allegiance. The two actors work
together quite well at portraying the see-saw moral compass between them. The movie
has odd moments that in the end are blunted by a relatively standard ending, an
ending that comes almost as unexpected in its predictability when taking into
account what the rest of the movie achieved.
For an odd 2 hours of art-house type entertainment The Perfect Host is
an interesting movie, and even though I sporadically enjoyed parts of it a lot,
I can’t really say that I enjoyed the movie as a whole.
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