20 non-traditional Christmas movies to watch this year

6. Jackie

Watch if: You agree that the world has gone mad.

What it’s about: A week after JFK’s assassination, Jackie Kennedy (Natalie Portman) tells her story to a reporter (Billy Crudup).

Connection to Christmas: Very, very subtle. Kennedy was killed on Nov. 22, 1963 and Jackie’s interview is about a week later, just as the holiday season is usually starting up.

Why it makes for good holiday entertainment: Jackie is about grief, the end of an era, and the way the powers that be reframe history. But it also contains something that many films, not just ones about Christmas, lack: conversations and questions about faith. Jackie’s entire life falls apart when her husband is killed. She loses her husband, her home, her status, and her sense of self in one fell swoop. If that doesn’t inspire a crisis of faith, then nothing will.

In order to cope, Jackie has several frank discussions with a priest (John Hurt). She shares her insecurities, her anger, her own wish that she was dead and her doubts about God. Jackie doesn’t take the usual route with the character of the priest. He doesn’t present faith as black or white, open or shut. Instead, he actually listens to Jackie and confides in her, too. “I have lived a blessed life,” he says. “And yet every night, when I climb into bed, turn off the lights, and stare into the dark, I wonder, ‘Is this all there is?’”

Much more than a simple biopic, Jackie asks the hard questions and admits that there are no easy answers. Chances are most of us have done the same during one holiday season or another.