20 non-traditional Christmas movies to watch this year

11. The Five-Year Engagement /This Is 40

Note: I’ve grouped these two films together because Judd Apatow was involved in making them both and because they each center on a long-term, struggling couple.

Watch if: You and your significant other’s fights are especially unpleasant during the holidays.

What they’re about: The Five-Year Engagement is, as its title suggests, about a couple who want to get married, but life keeps getting in the way. Life, by the way, has a little help from work, depression, jealousy, and resentment.

This Is 40 revolves around a married couple who have hit an endless rough patch in their relationship. Both Debbie (Leslie Mann) and Pete (Paul Rudd) turn 40 during the same week and — via a lot of colorful curse words — begin to wonder if this is as good as life gets.

Connection to Christmas: Obvious in This Is 40, less so for Five-Year Engagement. Five-Year Engagement takes place over, you guessed it, five years, so the holidays do factor into the story. Also, the bleakness of a Midwestern winter is what triggers Tom’s (Jason Segel) depression, one of the causes of his split with Violet (Emily Blunt).

As for This Is 40, Debbie and Pete’s birthdays are in December and Christmas decorations are present in the background. It’s only remarked upon in passing, but the holiday is alive and well.

Why they make for good holiday entertainment: If you’d like film to acknowledge that the holidays can be melancholy, if not downright gloomy, you’ve come to the right place. Both couples prevail in Five-Year Engagement and This Is 40, but you get the sense that their happiness will be short-lived: their problems are still problems. Violet’s job will still be in Michigan, a place where Tom does not want to live. The pressures of marriage, family, and money will still weigh on Pete and Debbie. Love isn’t a panacea. These two films are the perfect entertainment if you’re aware that Christmas isn’t a panacea, either.