MovieChat Forums > The Perfect Host (2011) Discussion > Relies too heavily on coincidence/contri...

Relies too heavily on coincidence/contrivan ce (SPOILERS)

posted 13 years ago by Jebus_Saves
16 replies | jump to latest

Of course he doesn't leave, he goes for a weapon. And of course it is one of the ones on the wall and not a kitchen knife. And of course those happen to be fake knives FOR JUST SUCH AN OCCASION! And of course John figured out where his GF is headed. And of course Warwick knows he will be there and will be driving out at just that moment... and of course the car attendant didn't see who actually knocked him out... because being a cop makes you a ninja.

Piles coincidence upon contrivance upon coincidence. Sign of terrible writing.

[–] HowIMetYourHobo 13 years ago

Yeah. I was really loving it, but I absolutely hate movies where the last fifteen minutes are just twist after twist after twist, showing each previous event/character to be a cover or a fake. If they had just kept this as the story between a criminal and a crazy man, and not added the fake scars, the police investigation, the girlfriend screwing him over, the deal between the two... it could have been amazing.

TheHobo.

[–] Jebus_Saves 13 years ago

Agree.

[–] mrs-jindrak 13 years ago

Couldn't get past the pretty whopping coincidence that the crazy guy from the whole first half of the movie, who he'd barely managed to escape from, is also a police detective who's been working his case. Riiiight.

[–] Strazdamonas 13 years ago

technically he hastn been working his case til lthe morning, as the cop that comes to his house tells him about it. infact it wouldnt even be possible as the robbery occured in the evening and it didnt took that long for the guy to get to his house, so the cop had probably already le ft work when he robbed the bank.

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All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for enough good men to do nothing.

[–] outsider-2 13 years ago

It went downhill after the fake knives

[–] whatwazdat 13 years ago

This thread is stupid. From the moment John picked Warwick's house to the full circle ending where the detective becomes the next to be invited to dinner... the whole movie was one heck of a twilight zone ride. Two hours of pure Rod Serling type cleverness. I feel sorry for you guys who couldn't enjoy the ride.

[–] mjd_subs2 13 years ago

I don't agree the thread is stupid, but agree with the rest of your post.

Viewers complain if a movie is too long which would be required to show every connection and incident leading up to the "major points" and they complain when some things are pushed along to get the story moving. We have to overlook some things unless we want to sit for 6-10 hours to watch EVERYTHING that happens leading up to various events. It's just not practical (or entertaining) to do so.

I love the Twilight Zone and enjoyed this movie.

[–] xthe_shiznitx 13 years ago

Therefore this thread is stupid because these people with the attention span of a 12 year old don't understand that Warwick planned all of it, made contingencies for other choices John could have made and manipulated every choice John and the other scrapbook people made or could have made.
The OP claims all of these events were coincidence but he obviously didn't notice what else Warwick planned. Which shows that stupid people will complain about movies they don't fully comprehend.

[–] AnnahMH 13 years ago

so how the world did Warwick plan John into going into his ouse to have the night of hell all set up???

There is no way Warwick could have planned for John's arrival as John just drove randomly to a neighborhood........and ended up at the house of a man who was planning for John that night and happened to work on the robbery case.

Riiiiight.

[–] whatwazdat 13 years ago

ahinman-61-816090, I don't agree with the other poster who thinks he planned all of it. He NEVER EVER planned for John. This guy has invisible parties by himself, sometimes with a real person like the photo albums suggest, but you can also assume by himself too based on the photograph of him with his arms around nobody. That night, he was about to have one of his imaginary parties by himself when John rode in. He wasn't even going to let him in until John started pretending to know Julia. Right at that moment, Warwick knew that John was lying because Julia does not exist. So now the script is flipped. John thinks he's playing Warwick, but in actually Warwick has decided to play along. So any planning was on the fly. Warwick left John to himself plenty of times at the beginning, so you can assume he drugged the red whine during this time. Heck, might have a drugged bottle all ready to go. Who knows, he's a freaking psycho.

[–] xthe_shiznitx 13 years ago

So it isn't possible at all that Warwick(who was working the bank robbery) could have questioned the girl and convinced her to give him every detail about John that she thought she knew about him, or had setup a meeting with John and her so that Warwick would be able to feed her lines to tell him in order for him to head over to Warwicks house after the robbery?
Not possible at all from an intelligent mastermind?

There are federal agents that setup encounters months in advance in hopes of assassinating or preventing the assassination of dangerous or important people.

[–] whatwazdat 13 years ago

No. The first time we see the 2 cops chatting about the case, cop A ask, "what's that?" Cop B responded, "Witness statements!" Cop A says, "We have a lead witness already?" Cop B then goes on to explain who she ID'ed them. At that time, John is already at Warwick's house. Seems to me the ID was fresh information that Warwick did not know about yet. My logical guess is that Warwick found out who John was the way he reacted to the radio news when he told Warwick to STFU cause he wanted to listen to the news. That's when all the marbles were on the table and John says, "Here's your effing Julia.."

And here's a problem with your mastermind scenario. It's obvious from the outset of the movie, John knocked on Warwick's door by chance. If he was supposed to head over to Warwick's house after the robbery, then what the heck was he doing pretending to be a Jehovah's witness to get into the old lady's house? Only after she rejected him, he started down the street to look for a different house. He chanced upon Warwick's house, then looked through his mailbox for any clues. Hence, he found the Julia postcard. How did you miss this beginning?

[–] ShakespearesSister 13 years ago

It's obvious Xthe is the one with the attention span of a 12 year old since he missed the very important scene where Warrick doesn't get briefed on who the suspect is until the cop visits his home. He tried to embarrass someone with his intellectual "superiority" and ended up looking like a fool.

“It's mercy, compassion, and forgiveness I lack. Not rationality.”

[–] xthe_shiznitx 13 years ago

Seriously? He checked information behind the other detective's back more than once and the movie clued in that Warwick knew or at least met and talked to the girl before the bank heist.

[–] Gambitt 13 years ago

The OP doesn't know what coincidence / contrivance mean. There is only one huge coincidence-- the fact that John happens to end up at Warwick's house. Every movie is allowed one or two coincidences--else it's really boring and unremarkable. The rest of the stuff OP complains about are just plot elements, perhaps cheesey or lame but nothing to do with coincidence.

I actually appreciated that they spelled out how John located Simone. At first, it made no sense to me that she would simply to the car rental that he knew about, which is where the movie seemed to be heading. But then he went through the phone book, cold calling car rentals until he fingered her. Perfectly logical.

I will admit that the end was a bit contrived-- how Warwick somehow nabbed John at the exit.

[–] BrewedinHolland5 13 years ago

Warwick knows he will be there and will be driving out at just that moment

The way I saw it- he was going under the assumption she was meeting John at the garage, so he stayed at the attendant's booth waiting for him to either show or exit.

Who invited E.T. -?