48
Metascore
16 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- Tomnay skillfully shifts the film's initial tone from suspense to dark comedy so that the transition never feels forced.
- 70VarietyDennis HarveyVarietyDennis HarveyJust when the picture seems to be settling into torture porn, it begins pulling a series of clever twists -- although they lose some punch when you realize the script depends on one whopping coincidence.
- 67The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayThe A.V. ClubNoel MurrayIt's best enjoyed as a crackling performance piece.
- 65MovielineMichelle OrangeMovielineMichelle OrangeYou'll have to hang on to something to get through the hairpins in The Perfect Host, a chamber piece hostage thriller black comedy undone less by its twists than by the stretches of bad road between them.
- 58Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanEntertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanFor a while, the movie has a cat-and-mouse appeal - it's like "Hard Candy" crossed with a smaller-scale "Deathtrap." Pierce acts with an enjoyably testy flamboyance, but by the time he starts to imagine that his guests have arrived even though dinner's been canceled, the film has given him one loose screw too many.
- 50Boxoffice MagazineMark KeizerBoxoffice MagazineMark KeizerPierce delivers everything the role requires except serious menace, while the less-seasoned Crawford improves as his handsome face bares more of the evening's scars.
- 40Time OutKeith UhlichTime OutKeith UhlichWriter-director Nick Tomnay needlessly convolutes what should have been a taut, focused two-hander with flashbacks, alternate realities and too-clever-by-half reversals.
- 40Village VoiceMichael AtkinsonVillage VoiceMichael AtkinsonFirst-timer Nick Tomnay has expanded his movie from a short, and the point where he ran out of ideas looms like a cliff edge.
- 38Slant MagazineJesse CataldoSlant MagazineJesse CataldoAlthough it fancies itself as rigidly complex as a well-played chess match, Nick Tomnay's The Perfect Host is really a game without any rules, one where characters and situations exist in total thrall of the next shocking twist.