The Perfect Host - DVD Review

**1/2
Starring David Hyde Pierce, Clayne Crawford, Nathaniel Parker and Helen Reddy.
Directed by Nick Tomnay.

I give the two leads credit for keeping this movie as interesting as long as they do. It's a twisty, turny affair, a screenplay exercise disguished as a film, but I was on board before the whole thing collapsed under its own Shyamalanness.

Clayne Crawford plays John Taylor, a man who's just robbed a bank and needs a place to hide out. He finds Warwick Wilson (David Hyde Pierce), a lonely single man about to throw a dinner party. Warwick buys John's cover story at first, that they share a mutual friend. But when his thin story falls apart, John takes Warwick hostage. Where it goes from there is a fun turn of events. For a while.

I liked Pierce doing everything he could to make Warwick surprising and yet make sense. By the end, that's impossible, but nice try.

P.S. Yes, that IS Helen Reddy ("I Am Woman") as Warwick's nosy neighbor.

New on DVD this week:

Cars 2

Water for Elephants