The Perfect Host
David Hyde Pierce (Niles from Frasier) is a guy who is about to give a dinner party, who gets duped by an armed robber/thief on the run to let him in, get fooled by him whilst he cases the joint, then he takes over before the guests arrive.
However all is not what it seems. It turns out the host is a complete lunatic, and the apparent alpha-male in this setup become the underdog.
This is a terrific little movie. DHP is fantastic as essentially a psychotic Niles, tending to guests that aren’t there but who he can see plainly, whilst the thief (Clayne Crawford, who definitely has a young Ray Liotta vibe) is confused, then scared, then angry.
It’s a black comedy. I laughed out loud several times; when the thief reveals his bleeding foot and DHP says ‘I can clean that up’ and gets a cloth, and when the foot is lifted to him, DHP starts cleaning the floor; when the thief gets shown the host’s insane home movies; when the thief is left heavily drugged, but floating in the pool buoyed up by floats. It’s all so bizarre and nutty.
I also liked how, several times it looked like it was about to go down a very dark road (think ‘Misery’) but in fact it doesn’t do that, and is better for it.
The third act doesn’t quite work for me as you find out the whole movie is based on a somewhat ridiculous circumstance, but overall I enjoyed it a lot. I particularly liked the final scene, which was something of a homage to the end of Silence of the Lambs, I think.
Spiritually, the film it most reminded me of was the 1972 version of Sleuth, with a touch of Misery, Norman Bates, Sunset Boulevard and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane thrown in.
Overall recommended, for adults.