12/15-The Ref (1994)

This is a movie that I don't know how many of you may know about, but my mom liked when I was a kid, so I saw it a number of times, but clearly didn't appreciate a lot of the humor in it.  If you pay a lot of attention to what I've written here in the past, you might be saying, "Ben, didn't you say that your mom didn't like Christmas movies?"  Well yes, that is true and I did say that, but The Ref shows off what happens when people feel obligated to attend family holiday gatherings; basically Christmas is not represented super well, or at least not at first.

Okay, so what's it really about?  It's really about a family who's marriage is struggling.  The first thing we see is Kevin Spacey and Judy Davis (my second grade teacher had the same name, but obviously, this is not the same person) in a marriage counseling session.  The sign outside says Dr. Wong, and the first thing I lot of was BD Wong because I love saying BD; it's super fun to say.  So imagine my delight when Dr. Wong is played by the one and only BD!  But then I was thinking, is that lazy writing?  Or is it like in the Apatow movies where a lot of the actors play characters with their same name?  I don't know.

The other thing going on at this time is Denis Leary, a professional thief, breaks into a big, old, fancy house using gadgets and cunning, but is still partially thwarted by the owner's Home Alone-ian anti-burglary traps, which include spraying Leary with cat piss and dropping him down a trapdoor into a cellar with a vicious dog named Cannibal.  Although he escapes, his getaway driver abandoned him at the first sign of police.  Over their scanners, we hear that this robbery is one of a string of robberies, so the state police are brought in to basically shut the town down to catch this guy.  This includes a curfew as well as some police checkpoints.

In order to find some place to lie low while he tries to figure out a plan, Leary pretty much hijacks the Chasseurs (Spacey and Davis) and forces them to take him to their home since he can't get out of town due to the checkpoints.  Leary quickly realizes how dumb this idea was because of the Chasseurs' incessant arguing.

So Leary ties them up in their own home while he tries to contact his partner, but the arguing just won't stop, forcing him to step in and make the two confront their troubles head on instead of just bitching constantly.  Unfortunately, this current situation can't last forever because the Chasseurs are expecting family to arrive for Christmas dinner, so his plan for containing them is constantly changing.

By the way, it's strange watching Kevin Spacey play a kind of spineless whipping boy considering he's so ingrained as of late as Frank Underwood, who takes no shit from anyone.  Anyway, the family arrives and the whole situation becomes something of a farce.  Leary pretends to be Dr. Wong so the rest of the family doesn't realize that they are essentially hostages.  Many grievances are aired through several hilarious, though sometimes tense scenes with the family.

There's a lot to love about this movie, not the least of which is that Denis Leary basically does his stand up with every one of his lines in this movie, but here are a few more delightful things:

-"The spirit of Christmas is either you're good or you're punished and you'll burn in hell."
-"Who would catch a criminal and then let him go free?"  "Republicans?"
-"People with guns get to do whatever they want."  This isn't really a hilarious line, but it was strange how poignant and true that still is today, at least with some of the recent news events.
-"We got a little held up."
-Adults struggling with VCRs, which is basically the 90s version of adults sucking with computers in today's movies.
-This was J.K. Simmons' first movie!  He's the best, so you should see this movie for his debut alone.

Funny and not your average Christmas movie.  Great if you love a dysfunctional family.

Rating on the feel-good-o-meter: 6 out of 10 hugs