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The most underrated dark humor Christmas movie ever
Forget Die Hard and forget Bad Santa, the best dark humor Christmas movie is one you’ve probably never heard of.
The movie is called The Ref, a 1994 gem about a cat burglar named Gus who, through an unfortunate series of events, is forced to take a dysfunctional family hostage just before Christmas.
Family dysfunction is one of the main characteristics of Christmas in real life, of course, and The Ref tackles it in a gut-bustingly funny and ultimately heart-warming way.
As Lloyd says when he’s realized what he’s gotten himself into: “Great, I hijacked my fu***ng parents.”
I can’t reconcile how good this movie is with how few people know about it.
Let me count the ways.
The plot and writing
The Ref is an antidote to the sappy sweet Christmas fare of yesteryear (The Holiday, Love Actually) and the seemingly non-stop flood of holiday romances.
Not that there’s anything wrong with The Holiday and Love Actually, both of which I’ve seen more times than I can count with my wife. They serve their purpose.
The movie opens with the main protagonists, husband Lloyd (Kevin Spacey) and wife Caroline (Judy Davis), in a marriage counsellor’s office just…
