THE REF

In THE REF, cat burglar Gus (Denis Leary) becomes a hostage couple’s unwilling referee on Christmas eve when he is forced to listen to their continual bickering. Gus ties up Carolyn and Lloyd Chasseur in their home but then is forced to listen to them disagree about everything, however miniscule. When Gus looks for a cigarette, he learns that Carolyn has quit smoking, or so her husband thinks. Uncannily, Gus extracts from her where her cigarettes are hidden and finds them, much to Lloyd’s amazement and Carolyn’s disgrace. The rest of the family, including Lloyd’s acid-tongued mother, his equally acid-tongued sister-in-law and even his son, Jesse, complete a very dysfunctional family. On Christmas eve, with humorous and cunning insight, Gus sees through each individual’s facade, cuts through to the exact problem, brings him up short, and forces each to face his failures.

Through Gus’s taking hostages, then becoming a kind of hostage himself, Gus achieves what countless hours of counselling had failed to do as the Chasseurs, despite Carolyn’s adultery, come to understand their love for each other and set their threatened divorce aside. Jesse, too, no longer wants to leave home because he finds love there. THE REF is an funny movie with a stimulating, insightful script. Regrettably, it contains over 100 obscenities and 25 profanities which will limit its audience.