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.

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