The Ref (1994) Touchstone/Comedy RT: 97 minutes Rated R (pervasive language, comic violence, sexual references) Director: Ted Demme Screenplay: Richard LaGravenese and Marie Weiss Music: David A. Stewart Cinematography: Adam Kimmel Release date: March 9, 1994 (US) Cast: Denis Leary, Judy Davis, Kevin Spacey, Robert J. Steinmiller Jr., Glynis Johns, Raymond J. Barry, Richard Bright, Christine Baranski, Adam LeFevre, Phillip Nicoll, Ellie Raab, Bill Raymond, Robert Ridgely, J.K. Simmons, Rutanya Alda, B.D. Wong. Box Office: $11.4M (US)
Rating: *** ½
If any movie can be described as an “anti-Christmas” movie, it’s The Ref, a dark comedy starring comedian/MTV personality Denis Leary as a thief on the run who gets more than he bargained for when he takes a bickering couple hostage on Christmas Eve.
Directed by Ted Demme (Who’s The Man?), The Ref was supposed to come out for Christmas ’93. It got bumped to March when test audiences disapproved of the original ending. It was pulled from the schedule and a new ending was hurriedly shot that January. I can’t help but wonder if it would have done any better at the box office had it been released in December; probably not given its dark tone, unlikable characters and refusal to display any holiday cheer. It’s as misanthropic as comedies come. I think it’s a f***ing riot!
It’s the Christmas Eve from Hell as Gus (Leary) spends the evening with a family so dysfunctional that they make the Barones (Everybody Loves Raymond) look like the Bradys. The Chasseurs (18th century French Huguenot if you please) are some of the worst people I’ve ever seen in reel life or real life. I can’t imagine anybody wanting to spend Arbor Day with them much less Christmas Eve. Gus finds himself forced to tolerate their s*** while he deals with own s***. A robbery at a nearby home goes wrong when he activates an alarm right out of the ACME catalogue. His dimwitted partner Murray (Bright, the Godfather movies) drives off and leaves him. The local police are looking for him. His only way out is to hijack somebody to get him out of there. He chooses the wrong people.
Lloyd (Spacey, American Beauty) and Caroline (Davis, A Passage to India) are a married couple in crisis. Basically, they hate each other. They’re always arguing. Gus takes them at gunpoint from a convenience store parking lot and forces them to take him to their home so he can regroup. The problem is they’re expecting Lloyd’s family for dinner. It’s too late to cancel so Gus poses as their marriage therapist who explains his presence as “experimental therapy”.
Lloyd’s family, they are something else. His mother Rose (Johns, While You Were Sleeping) is a callous, controlling old biddy who owns their home and business, an antique shop. She’s charging him 18% interest on some money she loaned him years ago. Basically, she owns their lives. His brother Gary (LeFevre, Mr. Wonderful) is a spineless sort married to a shrew named Connie (Baranski, How the Grinch Stole Christmas). She does nothing but complain and smack their children around. In addition, their troubled teen son Jesse (Steinmiller, Jack the Bear) is due home from military school. He’s a piece of work, this kid. He’s blackmailing his commanding officer Siskel (Simmons, Whiplash) with some incriminating photographs. Naturally, he and Lloyd don’t get along. He plans to run away over Christmas break.
The Ref is nasty in all the right ways. Much of it has to do with its leading man. In his first starring role, Leary shows he can command the entire show like a seasoned pro. His profane and sardonic persona perfectly suits the material. He gets off so many great lines. He refers to Connecticut as “the fifth ring of hell”. While observing Lloyd and Caroline’s non-stop bickering, he comments “Great. I hijacked my f***ing parents.” When he reaches his limit with Rose, he tells her “You husband ain’t dead, lady. He’s hiding.” He goes after Connie too, threatening to do something rather unpleasant to her with the main course if she keeps hitting her son. Yes, it involves a certain bodily orifice. If this is Christmas Eve with the Chasseurs, I can’t wait to see what they have in store for New Year’s Eve.
Spacey and Davis are spot-on perfect as a dysfunctional couple who’d give Sean Penn and Madonna a real run for their money. They provide the perfect springboard for Leary’s rantings and ravings. The way they bounce barbs and insults off each other feels completely natural. Spacey embodies the discontent of an upper-class suburbanite not living the life he had planned. Davis matches him as the unhappy wife looking to fill the void with classes, hobbies and extramarital affairs. Johns is hilarious as the mother from hell, a perfectly awful woman who bullies, berates and humiliates Lloyd in the special way only a true mom-ster can.
Raymond Barry (Falling Down) does good work as the local police chief who gets no respect from the town council headed by an arrogant ass (Ridgely, Blazing Saddles) who keeps threatening to fire him. His men don’t even get a chance to start an investigation before the state attorney calls and orders him to step aside for the state police. Not that these guys are competent law enforcement agents. They manage to destroy an important piece of evidence when they accidentally record a portion of It’s a Wonderful Life over the surveillance footage from the victim’s home that provides a clear shot of Gus’ face. Hey, it’s not the chief’s fault his guys are idiots. His final words to the council head are absolutely priceless.
The things that happen in The Ref are very funny. This is coming from somebody who doesn’t like shows that feature families being horrible to each other. I hate Everybody Loves Raymond and Malcolm in the Middle. The Ref is the kind of movie that will appeal to the Grinch in everybody. It’s an anti-Christmas movie in that it subverts the genre much like Bad Santa. It’s not against Christmas; it’s just against the sappy sentiment and fake good cheer that accompanies the holiday.
Needless to say, The Ref isn’t for everybody. Who wants to see a Christmas movie about horrible people who do and say terrible things to each other? It’s likely a few people will be offended by what goes on here whether it’s the town Santa Claus getting drunk and urinating on somebody’s front lawn, Gus having the kids tie up and gag their parents, something that they do very willingly or my favorite, Lloyd telling his mother to “shut the f*** up”. The Ref clearly isn’t everybody’s cup of eggnog, but those with a warped sensibility will find it deliciously funny.
