Love Hard Synopsis: An LA girl, unlucky in love, falls for an East Coast guy on a dating app and decides to surprise him for the holidays, only to discover that she’s been catfished. This lighthearted romantic comedy chronicles her attempt to reel in love.
Natalie (Nina Dobrev) has made a career from her terrible love life. She writes a column about her dating life, the appeal being how horrible it is. Natalie wants to write more serious pieces, but her boss, Lee, enjoys Natalie’s column’s success, so he’s dismissive of her woes.
When Natalie matches online with Josh (Darren Barnet), the two hit it off, and Natalie is optimistic that her long line of horrible dates may finally end. After an impulsive decision to fly across the country to surprise Josh for Christmas, she discovers she’s been catfished. But the real Josh (Jimmy O. Yang) promises to hook her up with Tag, whose pictures he had been using online, if Natalie pretends to be his girlfriend for Christmas.
It took me a few days to figure out how I felt about this movie. I love a good “fake dating” rom-com, but Love Hard felt particularly cringey. From Natalie’s job (writing about her disappointing love life) to Natalie flying across the country to surprise a guy she’s known for two weeks, to Josh’s desperation at impressing his family to Natalie’s decision to change her entire persona to impress Tag to… well, you get the idea.
Now, Love Hard is not the first movie to deal with catfishing and people changing who they are to find love when true love was in front of them the entire time, etc., etc. But my issue with Love Hard is that the happy ending is not earned. Yes, Natalie and Josh find some common ground after the initial anger and awkwardness, but for the majority of the movie, Josh is helping Natalie win over Tag. She changes her entire personality to get his attention, even agreeing to eat meat at his family’s steakhouse despite the fact that she’s a vegetarian. And then she is put off when Tag admits he doesn’t celebrate Christmas. The audacity.
But while Natalie and Josh clearly connected on the Flirt Alert app, there’s no spark between them when they meet in real life, because Natalie spends most of the time angry with Josh and focused on Tag. Josh is dealing with family issues, including his narcissistic, attention-seeking older brother, Owen, and his desire to make “masculine” candles rather than work for his dad at the family outdoor sporting goods store.
As I was watching Love Hard, I was sensing a lot of similarities to While You Were Sleeping – a son not wanting to follow in his father’s footsteps, a more successful brother, falling for a woman who has eyes for someone else, Natalie’s public speech revealing the truth to Josh’s family… the big difference is, While You Were Sleeping focused on the leads blossoming attraction and romance, making their happy ever after believable. Love Hard never truly commits to Natalie and Josh, which makes the ending feel forced. It’s a happy ending for the sake of the genre because it’s expected.
That said, it’s at least a pretty movie to watch during this time of year. Jimmy O. Yang is delightful as Josh and feels like the only character rooted in reality. I genuinely enjoyed the Baby, It’s Cold Outside duet between him and Natalie – Natalie hates the song due to its content, so Josh changes the words to give it a more modern twist of consent. It was a cute moment, whether you agree with the criticism of the Christmas song or not.
The supporting cast is entertaining enough, though Harry Shum, Jr. overdoes it as Josh’s overachieving older brother, Owen. Thankfully, his antics don’t overshadow the more subtle humor of Josh’s friends and family. I honestly don’t know if I can recommend watching this one. I think some people might find it charming, trying to subvert the genre in its own way… I don’t think it succeeds the way it wanted to.
Watched: 11/20/2020
Notable Song: Baby, It’s Cold Outside
