Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
A cat burglar is forced to take a bickering, dysfunctional family hostage on Christmas Eve.
The Ref is a sharp, caustic holiday dark comedy elevated almost entirely by its performances. Denis Leary, Kevin Spacey, and Judy Davis are all firing on all cylinders — Davis in particular delivers a ferociously funny turn as the monstrous mother-in-law, and Spacey and Davis's marital warfare is wickedly well-observed. The premise is clever but relatively thin, functioning more as a delivery mechanism for character comedy than a structurally rich plot. Cinematography is workmanlike and functional — nothing distinctive, the film has the look of a solid mid-budget studio comedy of its era. Novelty is moderate: the home-invasion-meets-dysfunctional-family-therapy angle has a distinct flavor, but it's not a wildly singular film in conception. The ending resolves things a bit too neatly and sentimentally for the mean-spirited tone the film establishes, undercutting some of its acidity.