Love Hard
The modern festive rom-com that offers just the right amount of fun and heartwarming moments.
Just when we thought we would wait until December to do Christmassy things, Costa Rican director Hernán Jiménez brings us Love Hard so we can get into the Christmas spirit early. Love Hard follows a Los Angeles writer Natalie Bauer (Nina Dobrev), who writes about her failed dating life for a living, as she thinks she has met her perfect match Tag (Darren Barnet) on a dating app. The two begin chatting, and the conversation starts to flow. Then she decides to fly 3,000 miles to surprise him for Christmas in Lake Placid, New York, only to find out that she’s been catfished.
Fortunately, luck is still on Natalie’s side as it turns out that the guy she thought she matched with actually exists and happens to live in the same town. The catfish, Josh Lin (Jimmy O. Yang) offers Natalie to help her get a shot with Tag, who turns out to be his best friend in middle school, but only if she agrees to pretend to be his girlfriend to his family until Christmas. Natalie, who initially thought this would be her happy ending, finds herself sharing a bedroom with her catfish during the holiday while he sets her up with her dream man.
In addition to her charismatic performance, we are all thrilled to see Dobrev back on screen again after her long break. Dobrev gives us enough to laugh and smile while she pretends to be the outdoorsy, adventurous girl that Tag likes. Josh, on the other hand, while he comes up with all the game plans to help Natalie, shines through with his nerdy charm, and we slowly learn the hidden reasons why he decided to catfish in the first place.
In the film, even though we hardly see much of his presence, but Natalie’s love interest Tag almost steals the show. And it would be a miss to not mention Natalie’s friend Kerry (Heather Mcmahan) and Josh’s brother Owen Lin (Harry Shum Jr.), who give us a laugh from time to time.
Love Hard shows us the ups and (mostly) downs of modern online dating, as well as the reality of unpredictable catfishing. It’s a breath of fresh air compared to other films about online dating, such as Newness and Two Night Stand. For the festive aspect, you will be satisfied if you only expect some classic holiday tunes and little family dynamics along with the pretty impressive remake of the iconic scene from everyone’s favorite Christmas flick, Love Actually.
So, is it a must-watch holiday film? Probably not. But if you want a little something new to get you into the Christmas spirit, then give it a watch.