Review: The Perfect Host

Clayne Crawford stars as a bank robber on the run after his latest heist, which has left him a little worse for wear, if $300,000 richer. Bleeding and needing somewhere to hang out until he makes his getaway in a few hours or so, he finds a postcard from a young woman in the mailbox of Warwick (David Hyde Pierce), who appears to be the nicest guy alive. Pretending to be a friend of the woman who wrote the postcard, he manages to play on Warwick’s sympathy (claiming he was mugged and the airport lost his luggage) to get inside his house, and even stay for dinner, as Warwick (a bachelor) is hosting a dinner party about to start shortly. Before long, Warwick’s friendly but nosey questioning starts to annoy Crawford, but...hey...is the room spinning, or is it just Crawford? He awakens to find himself tied to a chair and about to endure the strangest dinner party of all-time, as his generous host appears to be somewhere in between Niles Crane, Rupert Pupkin, and Patrick Bateman. Brooke ‘Mikey’ Anderson plays a young convenience store robber, Nathaniel Parker is a police detective, and Helen Reddy (yes, that Helen Reddy) is a nosey neighbour of Warwick’s.

I like a good twisty thriller/mystery, but this 2010 film from co-writer/director Nick Tomnay is the damndest thing. Based on a 2001 short film also by Tomnay, this isn’t just twisty, it’s a freakin’ pretzel. It has so many twists and turns that neither I, nor Tomnay, nor co-writer Krishna Jones (whose only previous work was Tomnay’s short film version of this called “The Host”), nor any of the actors seem to be able to make any sense out of it. If you were able to make some sense out of it all, good for you, but I wasn’t having a good enough time to really care. Tomnay and Jones particularly leave the talented David Hyde Pierce adrift here. He’s a good actor, and his Niles Crane was one of TV’s all-time most memorable creations, but this film does him no favours. He, and the film, start out pretty well (though it’s far too stagey for my liking), as he takes on a seemingly very Niles-esque character, even though the audience can sense there’s more to the story. That keeps you going for the first half or so, but once the character reveals another side to them, the wheels rapidly start to come off. I really thought it was going to go somewhere interesting and allow us to see Pierce in a new, darker light. Unfortunately, although it kinda does that, it is not in any way to the actor or the film’s advantage.

 

I think tone has to take part of the blame, as the film never seems to decide if it wants to be a comedy or a mystery/thriller. It starts out enjoyably in the latter category, but the comedy isn’t as successful and Pierce’s performance becomes awfully silly. Did we really need to see him disco dancing? His performance reminded me of John Lithgow’s performance in Brian De Palma’s miscalculated “Raising Cain”, and someone really should’ve reined Pierce in or stayed with the more serious approach. But with Pierce being so campy and ineffectual in such an important role, the film failed for me. I couldn’t get into it, especially once it started twisting and turning out of control. When you find out Warwick’s occupation, Pierce ends up seeming completely miscast. The flashbacks (particularly clunky) and Warwick’s delusions really made my head hurt.

About the only thing of interest was seeing several Australian names in the cast and crew for this American film, including former child star Brooke ‘Mikey’ Anderson, Helen Reddy (!), and Tomnay, who directed an episode of Bryan Brown’s “Two Twisted”, is an Aussie too.

This is an indie film that only had a budget of $1 million, but that’s no excuse. This is clearly a short film stretched beyond its limits (despite all the twisting and turning), and those aren’t budgetary limits. It’s just a lousy film that is too clever by half. “Sleuth” it ain’t.

 

Rating: C-