I took a movie break in September, choosing to get caught up on some T.V. shows I had been neglecting, and though there were a few movies sprinkled in there, I didn't feel like writing about them. Most of them were movies I just picked at random, trying to stimulate the creative juices and hope that at least one of them would inspire me to talk about it, and there were a couple that got close, like Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl, and Pervert!, but I never got past the "thinking about it" stage, although, in retrospect I probably should've written about Pervert!, that was the worst thing I've seen since Thankskilling, the only thing that made it better was all the gratuitous nudity. Somewhere along the way, I came upon the trailer for The Perfect Host and knew that I wanted to see it, but until I actually watch a movie I never know if I'm going to write about it or not. Well, here we are.
The film opens with John Taylor (Clayne Crawford, Smokin' Aces 2), a career criminal, on the run after a very recent bank heist. He's injured and desperate, and looking for a place to hide out until the heat blows over and he can figure out his next move. After one attempt to gain entry to a house and being spurned, he comes across a postcard from Australia from a woman named Julia, addressed to the homeowner by the name of Warwick Wilson (David Hyde Pierce, Wet Hot American Summer). Taylor manages to charm his way into the house pretending to be a friend of Julia's, whom he just "left" in Australia, telling Wilson that he was just mugged upon his return to the country, and that the airline lost his baggage. Wilson informs Taylor that he may stay and try to get assistance, but he is hosting a dinner party later that evening. After a few feeble attempts to get assistance with a problem that isn't real, Taylor convinces Wilson to let him stay awhile longer, and Wilson invites him to join the party. Wine is shared between the men, with Wilson asking questions that Taylor can't answer, and eventually the truth is revealed. Taylor tells Wilson to call off the dinner party, as he is now a hostage, and Taylor needs to figure out his next move. Wilson calls one of his guests to cancel, and tells that guest to inform the rest of the guests. Taylor continues to drink Wilson's wine and think about what to do next, and soon realizes there is a problem: he's been drugged, and it quickly overtakes and incapacitates him, and Wilson smugly disarms him.
Not this smugly, but close.
When Taylor wakes up, he is bound to a chair at the dinner table, where places have been set for four other people besides himself and Wilson. Wilson is seated at the head of the table and eating while holding conversations with people seated at the table...that Taylor can't see. It becomes very apparent that the mild mannered dinner host that Taylor thought he was taking hostage is actually a clearly unbalanced individual. There seems to be an actual dinner party going on, it's only happening in Wilson's head. A severe cat and mouse game ensues from then on, with Taylor trying to escape and Wilson carrying on his burgeoning dinner party and increasing "guest" count. Oh, and I almost forgot, during all of this we are introduced to the cop who is after Taylor, Detective Morton (Nathaniel Parker, Stardust) and, through some flashback scenes, a woman who appears to be Taylor's girlfriend, played by Megahn Perry (The Gravedancers), who may be providing the inspiration for his robbery in the first place. Back at the dinner party, Wilson shows Taylor a scrapbook of his, that details what happens over the course of the evening with his captives, as it appears that he has done this before. It doesn't look good for Taylor, and he begins to become more desperate to escape. We then get treated to a twist straight out of Shyamalan's playbook, and the movie kind of takes a sharp left turn from there.
"Hey, leave me out of this one."
I was really digging the film and was going to totally rate this movie a lot higher until the twist happened and the ending culmination of events is a different tone than what was set with the tension between the two leads in the first two-thirds of the movie. It doesn't kill it, it is still an interesting ending, it just makes you switch gears so fast that it is a little disorienting. I still liked it overall, Hyde Pierce is phenomenal as Wilson and his performances when interacting with his "guests" is just great acting. Check it out to see some great performances, even if the story does get a little muddled.
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