Love Hard: Hard to watch, and hard to love.

Niko 🙂

The holidays are approaching! And to many of us, that means presents, Mariah Carey, Christmas lights, and cold weather. And in addition to what seems to be a never-ending list of holiday traditions, is the Christmas rom-com.

It feels like every year we are seeing a new iteration of small-town romance with a green and red color scheme hit our streaming services. And this year is by no means the exception.

Love Hard was released on Netflix this November, just in time for everyone’s favorite holiday pop-star to begin defrosting, and for the weather here in sunny California to get cold enough for a North Face jacket. I was initially intrigued by the film’s basic premise: an attractive young writer, travels 3000 miles to meet her perfect dating app match, only to discover she’s been catfished.

So I thought to myself, okay. Let’s watch the movie. 

Warning!! Minor spoilers ahead!!

Love Hard from the get-go is a film that tries to be something it is not.

Poor music choice, sub-par acting ( even from Dobrev! ), and strange, almost fanfic-like writing plague the first few minutes of the movie– and it doesn’t really get that much better as you watch on. The initial test of endurance I faced when watching Hernán Jiménez’s film was the sheer amount of millennial-grade humor. It was months behind the latest trend, almost degrading in its portrayal of effeminacy, and a sorry attempt at being race-blind while also patting itself on the back for diversity. Not to mention the film’s terrible Christmas-pop intro that could not make up its mind between being a retail worker’s worst nightmare, and a tropical resort’s promotional video soundtrack. 

To start things off, we are introduced to our protagonist, Natalie ( Nina Dobrev ), an LA-based writer for an online newsletter ( think, trendy, Silicon Valley workspace meets Buzzfeed work ethic ), where she chronicles her disastrous love life to rake in reads for her boss. Natalie, after a string of once-again terrible dates, finds herself lost and out of options. Fed up with her complaining and lack of results, a friend widens her dating app search radius to that of the whole country in order to help her friend find love. While her boss demands a new article. It’s get-that-terrible-Christmas-date, or basically, lose her job.

Here’s where the trouble begins. 

Natalie’s search for her soulmate leads her right to the profile of Josh, 30, an attractive Asian-American man looking for a woman who is “spontaneous and drama-free”. And of course, she swipes right. 

After weeks of long conversations, calls, and flirtations, filled with the world’s oldest jokes ( what do you mean Die Hard isn’t a Christmas movie?? We’ve been over this ), and Natalie using the phrase ‘Yipee ki yay’ one too many times, we are at the brink of what sets this whole film into motion: Josh begins to pine, wishing that Natalie could be with him in Lake Placid, NY, for the holidays. 

And of course, because this wouldn’t be a Christmas rom-com without some level of irrationality, Natalie decides to fly three thousand miles to meet the man she believes to be the love of her life. But when she arrives, Natalie is luggage-less and quick to find out that Josh Lin ( Jimmy O. Yang ) is not, in fact, six feet tall, a mountain climber, and the drop-dead gorgeous cutie from the dating app. But rather a friend of said cutie, who used old pictures of his buddy ‘Tag’ to garner attention after being frustrated with a lack of results in the online dating scene. 

Natalie does not echo his sentiments about feeling unwanted and unloved— rather, she is angry, missing her belongings, and is now being forced to play the part of Josh’s girlfriend in order to prevent embarrassment and save herself from a bigger mess. Feeling cheated, Natalie asks Josh to help her win the heart of the man in the photos even if it means betraying someone’s trust the same way he betrayed hers. 

And I’ll save you the energy of knowing how the film ends. 

Love Hard is a perfect example of the lack of originality, creativity, and fun in the Christmas rom-com subgenre. It feels like every holiday season we see a regurgitated copy of the same film spat out onto Netflix’s top ten — although, in recent years, I am glad to say, that the diversity of these romances has gotten better and better. Love Hard hits all the marks for a mediocre Christmas romance— charming moments with family, likable characters, and cringe-worthy shenanigans that almost make you feel like leaving the room rather than facing the sheer horror of second-hand embarrassment. However, it falls incredibly flat because of its quest to be relatable and up-to-date. 

Not only does Love Hard’s humor fall behind, but its weird desire to pander towards popular online discourse creates weird hypocritical dynamics in the film. Natalie outright refuses to listen to Baby It’s Cold Outside, fair, given the song’s glaring themes of sexual assault, coercion, and general creepiness. But she’s entirely okay with tricking a man into falling in love with her while sticking with Josh, the film’s initial embodiment of dishonesty, insecurity, and betrayal. The entire dynamic of the film falls flat despite its ups and downs, and throughout my watch, it felt as though I needed to invest a certain level of commitment, and also emotional capacity in order to find myself even slightly entertained. 

I mentioned that Love Hard tries to be something it is not. And what that is, is enjoyable. 

Love Hard is a very much watchable movie for someone going into the film without any kind of critical mindset. However, as someone that enjoys character development, witty writing, and originality, Love Hard was like watching someone send your favorite novel through a paper shredder and try to read to you from the strips leftover. I adore Christmas movies. And admittedly, I love rom-coms. But there were several times where I had to stand up, leave my computer, and pace around the room before sitting back down to continue because the dialogue was painfully unrealistic, and somehow cruel for a movie that advertises itself as a fun, holiday comedy about reconciliation, romance, and forgiveness amidst weakened trust. 

Love Hard was two hours I will never get back. But that’s not to say I was totally disappointed. Josh’s family, the sweet interactions, and awkward moments were precious, genre-defining moments for the film, and the new light Love Hard has shed on Asian-American love interests will certainly be a positive development for representation in mainstream film.

All in all, Love Hard deserves a generous 5.5/10. While the cast delivered on their sweet interactions and the general awkwardness, it could not save the film from its unoriginality, poor humor, messy script and premise.