The Ref

The Ref (Hostile Hostages in some countries) is a 1994 Black Comedy film directed by Ted Demme and starring Denis Leary, Judy Davis and Kevin Spacey.

Leary plays Gus, a cat burglar who breaks into the house of a millionaire in the hopes of pulling off a job that will let him retire, but he gets tripped up by an... eccentric trap and suddenly has to hide out from the bungling local cops until his partner Murray can secure a way to escape after the entire area is put on alert. To avoid the police patrolling the streets, Gus takes Lloyd and Caroline Chasseur (a highly dysfunctional middle class suburban couple) hostage so he can hide out in their home until the escape is ready. There's just two problems; 1) Lloyd and Caroline are so dysfunctional and angry with each other that they would rather fight than pay any attention to Gus, and 2) it's Christmas Eve and everyone from Lloyd and Caroline's bright delinquent son Jesse (Robert J. Steinmiller Jr.) to their whole extended family is coming over for dinner. (And since this is 1994 and cell phones are very far from common, there's no way to call the Christmas dinner off.)

Hilarity Ensues.

When Murray can't arrange an escape prior to the extended family arriving, Gus gets Lloyd and Caroline to pass him off as their therapist so he can continue hiding from the cops and make sure they won't blow his cover. However, with all the nasty, petty resentments rising to the surface within the family, it's quite likely that Gus' rapidly dwindling sanity will run out before he can get out of town.

Tropes used in The Ref include:

• Asshole Victim: Lloyd and Caroline at first, and Lloyd's mother at the end.
• Bad Incompetent Cop, Even More Incompetent Cop: The entire local police force is like this, except Da Chief. Most notably when they accidentally record over the footage from the house security camera with a part of It's a Wonderful Life.
• Big Screwed-Up Family: Lloyd's family embodies this trope and then some. Lloyd is a spineless mama's boy who goes crying back to her when things don't go his way, his son is a juvenile delinquent, and his brother is just as bad and married to an annoying shrew of a woman who walks all over him. The brother and shrew do have some well-adjusted kids, though.
• Blackmail: Jesse's latest scheme is blackmailing the head of his military school.
• Black Sheep: Lloyd and Caroline's son, Jesse.
• Booby Trap: The sort that sprays you with cat urine, opens a trap door under your feet, and sends you down a chute where you crash right in front of a very large guard dog. Interesting security there...
• Bound and Gagged: Pretty much every character except Gus and Lloyd's brother's kids spends part of the movie in this state.
• Children Are Innocent: Subverted, as Gary and Connie's two kids are hugely entertained by the spectacle of their adult family members descending into profanity-laced tirades against each other, and even gleefully help Gus gag their (admittedly evil) grandmother.
• Cluster F-Bomb: Gus' tirade at the end of the film. This trope could apply to the whole film as well.
• Crowning Moment of Awesome: When Lloyd finally stands up to his mother. "You know what I'm going to get you next Christmas, Mom? A big, wooden cross, so every time you feel under-appreciated you can climb up there and nail yourself to it."
• Crowning Moment of Funny: There's a lot of them.
• Do They Know It's Christmas Time? : Subverted throughout the movie, then played almost straight at the end.
• Dysfunction Junction: ... oooooh boy.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Pretty much every character in relation to Madame Chasseur, no matter how unlikable or criminal themselves. Even the shrewish Connie rescues herself from the scrappy heap when she finally snaps and turns on her mother-in-law. "Slipper socks! Medium!"
• Evil Debt Collector: Caroline regards Lloyd's mother as this due to the fact that they're living in her house and paying her rent. When Lloyd gives her the next payment, she even remarks "we'll have to see what happens with interest rates in the new year."
  • Even Gus calls her out on this, specifically noting that he knows Loan Sharks more forgiving than her. It's worth noting that she is apparently charging Lloyd 18% interest on the loan she made him.
• Evil Matriarch: Lloyd's mother.
• 555: The number to Lloyd's house, as reported by Gus.
• Hilarious in Hindsight / Role Association: After watching B.D. Wong deal with rapists, pedophiles and soulless murderers for several seasons on Law and Order SVU, it's extra funny that Lloyd and Caroline's nonstop squabbling is what gets him to really tear his hair out in frustration.
• Hot-Blooded: When he can keep his head, Gus is a fairly intelligent Deadpan Snarker. Most of the time, he's lashing out at anything nearby and only causing more destruction in doing so.
• Ignored Enemy: Gus often winds up being the ignored one so other people can argue and fight, usually over rather petty issues. This generally only ends when he pulls out his gun.
• It Is Pronounced "Tro-PAY": The Chasseurs make a Running Gag out of correcting mispronunciations of their last name. "It's pronounced chas-OOHR! It's 17th century French Huguenot!"
• It's All My Fault: Lloyd's climactic speech at the Christmas tree, where he calls Caroline out for being just as much to blame for the state of their marriage as he is due to her indecisiveness, her desire to live like a rich person, and forcing him to make all the tough decisions in their lives.
• Jerkass: Lloyd's mother. There really are no words to describe how rude, inconsiderate and self-centered this bitch is.
  • "Lady, your husband ain't dead. He's hiding."
• Lethal Chef: Apparently Caroline. The rest of the family stops to eat dinner before getting to her house so they won't have to eat any more of her cooking than they have to.
• My Beloved Smother: Lloyd and his brother are living, breathing examples of this trope... at first.
• Old Shame: Lloyd's ill-fated restaurant, to him.
• Only Sane Man: Gus and the local police chief.
• Precision F-Strike: Mostly carpet bombing, but there is one nicely-timed unison strike by the Chasseurs against their marriage counselor.
• Rich Bitch: Lloyd's mother. And how.
• Running Gag: See It Is Pronounced "Tro-PAY" above. Also, everyone comments about the cat urine smell stuck to Gus.
• Shut UP, Hannibal: "Mother...is it possible for you to shut the fuck up for ten seconds?"
• Slap Slap Kiss: The parents. Although it's more like slap slap slap slap slap slap slap slap slap almost-kiss, with the slaps being verbal rather than physical...
• Smug Snake: Lloyd's mother. And how.
• The Dog Bites Back: Lloyd and Caroline are anything but meek hostages towards Gus. This can also apply to when Lloyd's family turns on his mother at the end, Lloyd's sister-in-law even going so far as to give Gus permission to shoot her.
  • Also the town Santa, who turns out to be a mean drunk.
  • Being fired wouldn't be so bad, if most of us had a comeback available like the one Lt. Huff does.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gus tosses these around like candy, mostly about how everyone takes what they have for granted. Also, when Jesse asks to become Gus' apprentice, Gus not only tells Jesse why Jesse sucks, but also explains why Gus himself sucks.

Let me explains something to you kid. What I do, running around stealing shit, that may sound great when you're 15 years old, but it sucks just a little bit when you're 35, no family, no house, I've got a partner who's a 56 year old alcoholic who can't figure out why they took Happy Days off the air, and then I got to turn on the TV everyday and see kids like you, one after another on these talk shows, you got everything, opportunities up the ass, you got a family to come home to, and what do you do? You sit around, and you bitch and you moan, because things don't go your way. Well, you know what kid, welcome to the real world where most times, things don't go your fucking way.

• • Everybody towards everybody.
• The Scrooge: Lloyd's mother. With all the money she has, the best things that she can buy her family for Christmas are slipper socks, a hideous sweatshirt, and husky-sized underwear.
• You Need to Get Laid: At the very beginning of the movie Caroline voices this opinion of Lloyd's mother. In a therapy session of theirs when Lloyd mentions that their son Jesse started an escort service in 9th grade by passing around Lloyd's mother's phone number, Caroline snaps back "And I say getting laid by an 18 year old linebacker is just what she needs!"
  • Also, Caroline and Lloyd apparently haven't had sex for years according to Caroline.
  • Caroline hits Lloyd with a devastating one, regarding his mother: "Why don't you just sleep with her and get it over with?" Even Gus is stunned by that one.