While rom-coms set during Christmastime are fairly par for the course, it isn’t often that you get one with the depth that Jay Duplass’s The Baltimorons possesses. And for his first film in a decade, he comes out swinging.

What sets The Baltimorons apart is that, unlike most Christmas rom-coms, the holiday isn’t a central character. Instead, it is in the background, like a bit of tension. It’s the holidays, yes, but everybody is far from happy. In fact, people are the special kind of miserable you can only get during the holidays when your life is far from what you wanted it to be.

Cliff (Michael Strassner) is a recovering alcoholic. His fiancée, Britney (Olivia Luccardi) is the one helping him get his life on track. Once a well-liked improv and sketch comedy performer, Cliff gave it up when things went bad. Now, he is trying to figure out where he fits in this new life, and he desperately wants to make it work. However, a chipped tooth on Christmas Eve sends him on a frantic mission away from Britney and her family.

He finally tracks down the only dentist available, Didi (Liz Larsen). Didi, divorced from her husband, typically hosts Christmas Eve for her daughter and grandchild, but this year her ex-husband decides to get married on Christmas Eve. Her daughter feels the obligation to go, and Didi encourages it. Cliff, not eager to return back to his fiancée’s house, offers to buy Didi dinner. When she finally accepts, the events that transpire are a nightlong adventure.

On being imperfect and human

Didi and Cliff are flawed people, The Baltimorons reminds us, but who among us isn’t? That doesn’t change the fact that Cliff wants his life to work out, or that Didi still desires companionship in the wake of her divorce. The two characters could not be more opposite, but as the night pulls them closer together, those differences are used to help the other out. They end up finding companionship, the kind they both desperately needed.

The growth of their relationship as the night progresses is one of the film’s strong points. Not once does it feel forced or contrived: Cliff and Didi seem to organically get to know each other. And with that knowing comes attraction–or, at least some approximation of it. It’s a testament to both Straussner’s and Larsen’s acting and Duplass’s writing and directing,

Life is about being afraid and still facing it. It isn’t about what has happened, but what can happen. Christmas, as joyful as it appears on the surface, can be a darkly reflective time for a lot of people. Lurking beneath the festivity is the reality that another year is coming to an end. It’s one of the reasons why it’s fitting that the holiday is more of an afterthought than a central character in the film.

It also serves as a reminder that you really can do anything, and that it doesn’t matter how small it is. The size and shape of it never matters as much as its importance. Much like the chilly Baltimore background this film takes place in, Didi and Cliff are like buoys in the night, guiding each other through the water.

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