This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
The Busiest Night of the Year
Plot Overview
To the strains
of, “The Holly and the Ivy, (When they are both full grown,”)
the sleepy town of Old Baybrook, Connecticut, is wrapping up
their errands on Christmas Eve, the full grown adults putting on the
annual holiday with the children benefiting. One child is missing.
“There's supposed to be a baby Jesus in the manger,” says
one kid, “but someone stole it.” Bummer!
Above the bookstore Village Books,
a local marriage counselor Dr. Wong
(B.D Wong) is conducting a session with a couple in their thirties:
Lloyd (Kevin Spacey) and Caroline (Judy Davis) Chasseur. Caroline
makes light of a tryst she'd had in the past saying that since it
didn't mean anything to her, it shouldn't even be counted as adultery.
Lloyd asks the doctor for a ruling.
The nerdy viewer might relate this to a ruling the apostle Paul was required to give back in Bible days. Jesus had elevated the status of marriage for believers, forbidding them from divorcing each other and going so far as to call a remarriage by such a believer adultery who had earlier divorced on paper another believer. When Paul came along preaching a good while in Corinth, he got a lot of converts who had never before even heard of Christianity so could hardly be expected to have set their caps to marry other Christians. A lot of mixed marriages resulted, so what would a believer do if her unbelieving spouse up and divorced her? Could she remarry or not?
In answer to the
Corinthians' questions regarding the
mixed marriages they'd entered into, the apostle writes of same as
an occasion for a Christian to influence the unbelieving partner to
convert, while remaining faithfully in the marriage. If the unbeliever
splits, however, the believer is free to remarry. Okay.
The above situations are not identical, but Paul does give an ancillary
ruling applicable to a subplot in our film. A widow, he declares,
is free to marry any eligible man, only she's to do so while being
in the Lord. In “The Ref” townsman George (Bill Raymond)
dressed as Santa makes the rounds. He is feted with goodies not limited
to cookies & milk; he can eat whatever's on offer, but he
must remain in character as Santa. When he gets drunk and mean, he
forfeits his welcome. Pity.
It's as in a
passage from Robert Tanenbaum:
“You got spaghetti sauce on your shirt, Goom,” said Karp. … ¶“It's marinara sauce and I wear it like a badge of honor,” replied Guma, lifting his chins proudly. “You're marrying a guinea, you should get used to it.” (79) … ¶“he was marrying a shiksa. They would hear the blast in Tel Aviv.” (137)
A Christian marrying a non-Christian is more a cosmetic difference than a Jew marrying a Goy. He has sanctified her and puts up with her peccadillos while his needs are being met. It's a badge of honor to him. In other times a Jew marrying a heathen was a major breach of their old covenant.
Caroline cooks a traditional Scandinavian
dinner for family and guest. They observe the Feast of Saint Lucia
who'd given away her dowry to the poor of her village rather than
to her in-laws-to-be, and her offended fiancé denounced her
to the Romans as a Christian, and they sentenced her to be burned
at the stake. When she failed to catch fire, they stabbed her to death.
Paul uses the general example of how badly an infidel treats a believer
to caution Christians not to be yoked together with them in their
churches. Individually he allows it, at least he doesn't explicitly
prohibit mixed marriages, using a rhetorical question as a caution
figuring most Christians will get it on their own.
Lloyd's mother
Rose (Glynis Johns) got married by arrangement in the old country
for economic reasons. She's a skinflint and after her husband's
passing has used her wealth to control her two sons, which caused
Caroline to lose respect for her man. When for appearances their marriage
counselor is impersonated by a burglar Gus (Denis Leary) on the run,
he puts the mother in her place thus invigorating the marriage of
her son she'd been stifling.
The police gain social grace watching, “It's a Wonderful Life.” Gus's wasted getaway driver Murray (Richard Bright) has been into the series, “Happy Days.” Gus looks forward to watching the Charlie Brown Special once he takes care of business.
Ideology
Two conflicts rear their
ugly heads this Christmas. Rose owns the house she charges Lloyd
exorbitant interest on, and she owns the antique business he manages.
He needs to break free from her undue influence to gain his wife's
respect. Lloyd and Caroline's sixteen-year-old, juvenile delinquent
son Jesse (Robert J. Steinmiller Jr.) is a student at a military academy as no
other school will enroll him. He's been blackmailing the Commandant
Siskel (J.K Simmons) with some compromising photos he's got of him.
That's got to end. Here is a family entering conflict à la,
(Prov. 30:33) “Surely the
churning of milk bringeth forth butter, and the wringing of the nose
bringeth forth blood: so the forcing of wrath bringeth forth
strife.” The idea in the
proverb is that a state of peace and conciliation can change
to one or conflict just as a liquid (milk) can change to solid (butter)
through constant agitation (churning.) Or hit a critical area (nose)
and it will bleed. The latter is illustrated in the movie when a
Rottweiler bites Gus on the rump as he's fleeing (“Did
you know you're bleeding?”) and he needs some (ouchless)
Band-Aids. The former is illustrated when the clerk at the Village
Store tells a customer they're out of egg nog, so the woman will have
to make her own. Egg nog is concocted by beating together: (granular)
sugar, (gooey) eggs, and (fluid) milk/cream to get the thick, creamy
beverage. As applied in this movie, the commandant does some soul searching
on Christmas Eve and decides to confront the blackmailer to put
an end to it. And Lloyd finally comes to his senses and decides not
to take any more guff from his mom.
Production Values
“The Ref” (1994) was directed by Ted Demme. Its screenplay was written by Richard LaGravenese based on a story by Marie Weiss. It stars Denis Leary, Judy Davis, and Kevin Spacey. Also featured are Glynis Johns and Christine Baranski. The main actors were primo, but the secondary actors did well, too. As a whole they were unbeatable.
MPAA rated it R for language. It was filmed at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada. The limited number of sets were well done up. It has a runtime of 1 hour 37 minutes.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
This movie was busy to the extreme.
It had all the running around on Christmas Eve, bickering families
in counsel, and a police dragnet of the town. Curiously, that worked
in the movie's favor, because it's a comedy on many levels, so it
might take multiple viewings to pick up on all of it. It got funnier
the second and third time I saw it. This one's a blast!
Movie Ratings
Action Factor: Weak action scenes. Suitability For Children: Not Suitable for Children of Any Age. Special effects: Average special effects. Video Occasion: Christmas viewing. Suspense: Predictable. Overall movie rating: Five stars out of five.
Works Cited
Scripture is taken from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Software.
“The Holly And The Ivy.” Traditional, music first published by Cecil J. Sharp (uncredited), originally arranged by H. Walford Davies (uncredited.) Arranged here by Charles Thompson.
Tanenbaum, Robert K. Reversible Error. Copyright © Robert K. Tanenbaum, 1992. New York: Dutton, 1992. Print.
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