The Ref

Demme and the screenwriters take care to fill out the scenario with vividly drawn characters such as Raymond J. Barry’s sardonic police chief and Robert Steinmiller Jr.’s Jesse.

It's not just a Denis Leary vehicle. It's a real movie, with drama and grace and intelligence (and slapstick and drunk Santa gags and crude laughs).

It's miraculous casting, and the Australian Davis -- for my money the finest actress around, bar none -- is simply uncanny in her command of East Coast gentility combined with razor-sharp timing and comedic expression.

The Ref benefits from having actor's actors like Davis and Spacey in the leads.

It's not a bad idea, but it's not a good movie, either.

Whether it's a function of sloppy editing or sloppy writing, few of these supporting players and their accompanying subplots pay off.

No matter how clever the script sometimes is, the laughs elicited by this movie are cheap, tinny sitcom laughs.

Often cited by many as a favorite Christmas film. Why? Because it depicts family ties at its most honest and painful, which is closest to the truth of what and who we are, especially in the midst of fake cheer of the holidays. W/Pat&Ken At the Holidays!

If you are in the mood for something different at Christmas than The Ref might be a fun choice for you.

A film so bleak even Krampus had to watch "Elf" immediately afterwards to regain his Christmas spirit. Rude, loud, funny and (apart from the home invasion by a gun-toting jewellery thief bit), pretty realistic about families and the festive season.