The Perfect Host

After more than a decade of playing the nebbish snob Dr. Niles Crane on the hit series, Frasier, David Hyde Pierce needed the kind of movie role that would make everybody forget he was Fraser Crane’s younger brother. This is that role. In the movie, Pierce plays Warwick Wilson, a man whose plans to host a dinner party get sidetracked when a wanted bank robber (Clayne Crawford) shows up on his doorstep looking for shelter from the cops. The fact that Warwick’s dinner guests are all in the host’s imagination is the least of the bank robber’s problems as he becomes Warwick’s prisoner. The film falls apart a bit at the end, but it’s still a thrilling ride, thank to Pierce’s pitch perfect performance.