The Perfect Host

Some films play like plays. They are very character driven, practically claustrophobic affairs. They are often a test of wills between two characters. As good as they are as films, I can just as easily imagine such a film as some off broadway play. These are the films that truly belong to the actors.

"The Perfect Host," is a good example of such a film. Here we have Clayne Crawford playing a robber. He sort of reminds me of a young Ray liotta except without the bouts of overacting. Anyway, he's just made a major robbery but he's been wounded and he's being pursued. So he needs to go to ground fast. A brief look at some mail gives him enough information that he bluffs his way into nerdy Warwick's house.

Warwick, played by David Hyde Pierce to perfection, says he's planning a dinner but invites his new guest to stay anyway. Now the game of cat and mouse begins and like the very best games the mouse thinks he's the cat at first. It's not a big twist that Warwick is not what he first seems, the twists come in just how big a nut he really is. Now the robber wishes he gave himself to police and there's a countdown that something very bad is going to happen to come morning.

To say anything more would be a crime. This is a good thriller with lots of snap. It's almost as if David Hyde Pierce was too influenced by his middle name. Definitely worth a watch if you want something with more brains than a Transformers blow me up.