There's a movie about a ...

• Dec 22, 2005 03:00 AM ET
• by Maitland McDonagh

Question: There's a movie about a burglar who breaks into a house on Christmas Eve; the house belongs to a couple who bicker constantly. Their son lives there, too, and a bunch of awful relatives are on their way over for Christmas. In the end the dad and son help the burglar out. Can you tell me what it is?

Answer: It's the mean-spirited The Ref (1994), which stars Judy Davis and Kevin Spacey as the squabbling parents, Dennis Leary as the burglar who takes them hostage in their own home, and the incomparable Christine Baranski as the bitchy sister-in-law who can make the word "slipper socks" sound like a vile obscenity. While Christmas films once did their best to focus on holiday uplift, the trend in recent years has been irreverence — no doubt a reflection of the fact that many people find the season to be filled with pressure and short of magic and warmth. These include Less Than Zero (1987), Bad Santa (2003), Christmas with the Kranks (2004) and The Family Stone (2005), as well as action pictures ranging from Die Hard (1988) to Turbulence (1997) and Reindeer Games (2000).