After our visit to Gotham City, we’re in slightly more grounded territory next with The Ref, a blacker than black 1994 comedy set at Christmas from director Ted Demme. This one follows squabbling spouses Lloyd (Kevin Spacey) and Caroline (Judy Davis) as they annoy the hell out of burglar Gus (Dennis Leary) who takes them hostage in their fancy Connecticut home on Christmas Eve night. This is a film that did ok at the time but which time now seems to have largely forgotten. I can sort of see why as even though it’s quite good fun, it’s a bit forgettable. The stars give some strong, droll performances, but it is a rather silly, uneven film with a confusing message.
Caroline and Lloyd, married for years, now hate each other and bicker constantly. They’re set to divorce but can’t even agree on a way to do that properly. It’s some real War of the Roses stuff. They’ve moved to Connecticut from New York with teen son Jesse (Robert J. Steinmiller Jr) but there’s a ton of resentment there as they’re living in Lloyd’s overbearing mum’s house, while also working for her and paying her rent.
This all goes down in one of those quaint little movie towns where everyone knows each other’s business, but somehow Leary’s wiseass cat burglar can’t escape with the loot from his latest score. Of all the hostages he could have picked, poor Gus picks these two who, even when held at gunpoint, can’t stop fighting. Tied up in their home while Gus tries to work out his exit strategy, the robber ends up playing referee to their quarreling, as visitors to the house make his life more and more difficult.
There are some daft, underdeveloped sub-plots, including a notable early role for J.K. Simmons as the commanding officer at Jesse’s military school who the kid is blackmailing. There’s also some stuff about the local cops trying to track Gus down, but it’s not that interesting or funny and distracts from the main plot that mainly involves Gus shouting at everyone to shut up and mocking their “rich people problems”.
Things get a little tough to swallow when Lloyd’s family arrive for Christmas and Gus pretends to be their marriage counsellor, joining them for dinner (do counsellors do that?). It’s mildly amusing, but it's hard to believe that this hellish couple’s issues can be solved by ranty Leary shouting at them for a bit. Or that Jesse would suddenly decide that Gus is a more attractive father figure than his own dad then try to leave with him. The most unfeasible part (SPOILER!) comes when the family figure they like this foul-mouthed kidnapper after all and conspire to help him escape. This makes no sense to me at all and honestly seems to come out of nowhere. Weird.
It’s one of those movies where nobody is particularly likeable, but it’s good fun to see them suffer and lose their shit with each other. It also oddly doesn’t feel all that Christmassy, despite the snowy backdrop and a subplot about a drunken neighbour going round dressed as Santa, offending people. He’ll become important to the plot later, but the story strands feel too disparate and uninvolving, leaving you wishing for more of Spacey and Davis’ acerbic barbs and verbal sparring.
Still, it’s different – not many festive films tend to show the kids gagging grandma, or furious Kevin Spacey letting rip at the Christmas tree with a fire poker. The big joke is that the ‘normal’ suburban family are more messed up than the gun-wielding crook who invades their home, but not much of it rings true for me. Demme’s film seems to be trying to make a point about the emptiness and cynicism of the season, but I’m not entirely sure what the point of any of this is. Despite that, it does raise a few chuckles. It’s ok, I guess.
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