There's no doubt that Niles Crane, the character that made David Hyde Pierce famous during Frasier's 11-season run, would be the perfect dinner party host, neurotic and well-mannered and always impeccably dressed. But Warwick Wilson, the character Pierce plays in the new thriller The Perfect Host, is another situation entirely. He seems to just be a mild-mannered guy happy to take in a career criminal (Clayne Crawford) who pretends to be an acquaintance, but when the criminal's malevolent intentions are revealed, both men discover just how deceiving appearances can be.
The Perfect Host has been making its way through the festival circuit since last fall's Toronto International Film Festival, and premieres On-Demand on May 27 and in theaters on July 1. Today we've got the exclusive debut of the film's poster; it's full of good plays on the usual stuffy dinner party, from the tagline "Dinner parties are a dying art" to the menacing way Hyde Pierce is holding that carving fork. Check out the poster below, the official synopsis below that, and look for The Perfect Host on demand next month.
Warwick Wilson is the consummate host. He carefully prepares for a dinner party, the table impeccably set and the duck perfectly timed for 8:30 p.m. John Taylor is a career criminal. He’s just robbed a bank and needs to get off the streets. He finds himself on Warwick’s doorstep posing as a friend of a friend, new to Los Angeles, who’s been mugged and lost his luggage. As the wine flows and the evening progresses, we become deeply intertwined in the lives of these two men and discover just how deceiving appearances can be. With outstanding performances by David Hyde Pierce and Clayne Crawford, cowriter/director Nick Tomnay takes us on a suspense-filled ride where nothing is as it seems. THE PERFECT HOST is a slippery psychological thriller that exposes true human nature and reveals just how far we’re willing to go to satisfy our needs.
