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copyright ©1999-2003
DigsMagazine.com.
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Plot synopsis
It's Christmas Eve and Caroline and Lloyd Chasseur, fresh from another
unproductive session with their marriage counselor, find themselves
bickering on the way back home. Making a quick stop at a convenience
store, Caroline storms in alone while Lloyd seethes in the car. In the
same snooty Connecticut town, burglar Gus has managed to escape from a
booby-trapped mansion he was attempting to loot. His ride is nowhere to
be found and Gus is pissed. To make matters worse, his burglary attempt
has become the talk of town, and the eccentric intended victim of the
crime has offered a big cash prize for anyone that helps capture Gus.
He's made it as far as the store when he spies Caroline, and decides to
take her hostage so that she'll be forced to let him hide out in the
safety of the Chasseur home until the cops get off his trail. He's got
the gun, he's in control of the situation -- or so he thinks at first.
Gus rapidly finds that not even a hostage crisis can prevent Caroline
and Lloyd from putting their own marital problems at center stage.
Between Caroline screaming at Lloyd for letting his mother rule his life
and Lloyd sniping at Caroline for her recent infidelity, poor Gus can't
hear himself think. Soon, Gus finds himself grudgingly playing mediator
between husband and wife, even as he juggles the tricky issue of how to
deal with the arrival of the extended Chasseur clan for the annual
Christmas Eve dinner -- and ultimately, get himself away from the cops,
and out of this suburban Connecticut dysfunctional hell.
Review
It's hard to go too wrong with a cast that features the combined talents
of Judy Davis, Kevin Spacey, and Denis Leary. I have a deep and
irrational love for Leary in particular, who never fails to amuse me
with his special brand of acerbic humor delivered with those slightly
nasal, drawn-out vowels that reveal his Massachusetts roots (and nurture
a deep, deep yearning for my home state). The casting and performances
of all three in this very black Christmas comedy fortunately make up for
the rather ridiculous plot. Davis is hilariously prickly and twitchy in
her righteousness, and Spacey's emasculated husband learning to stand up
for his rights is both pathetic and scathingly funny (and an obvious
precursor to his American Beauty role). Still, it's Leary that owns this
film, providing the greatest laughs -- and landing most of your sympathy
as well. Lloyd, Caroline and most of the other members of the Chasseur
family are so petty, selfish and mean that you're kind of glad to see
their picture-perfect Christmas plans ruined. Gus, on the other hand,
might be a criminal -- but he's also a guy who knows a Chagall when he
sees it, and has the soul to appreciate its beauty. There's just enough
sweetness balancing the scathingly funny back-and-forth volleys hurled
between Caroline, Lloyd and Gus that The Ref actually feels like
the perfect holiday movie -- for those of us who hate the schmaltzy
peace-on-Earth drivel that runs rampant this time of year, but secretly
wish for a smidgen of sincerely heartwarming optimism in our lives
nonetheless. —reviewed
by Yee-Fan Sun
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