At first I thought “The Perfect Host” was going to be a riff on Michael Haneke’s “Funny Games,” but this new movie is more complex, although definitely inferior.
The setting is LA, where career criminal John Taylor (Clayne Crawford) robs a bank, then accidentally gets involved in a convenience-store robbery, injuring a foot in the process.
He needs a place to lay low for a while, so — claiming to be a friend of a friend — he talks his way into the well-appointed home of an eccentric gentleman named Warwick Wilson (David Hyde Pierce), who’s preparing a duck dinner for friends.
Warwick offers his unexpected guest a glass of red wine. But it’s drugged, and Taylor passes out. He awakens to discover that he’s been tied up in the backyard pool.
So begins a game of cat and mouse I can’t reveal too much about without spoiling the viewer’s pleasure. (You’ll never guess what Warwick’s profession is.)
Pierce is a lot of fun as he spars verbally with Crawford, a Ray Liotta look-alike. The witty dialogue comes courtesy of director Nick Tomnay and his co-writer, Krishna Jones.
But “The Perfect Host” — which was shot in three weeks on a tiny budget — ultimately breaks down under the weight of too many characters and unbelievable twists.