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★★
Directed by: #HernanJimenez
Written by: #DanielMackey, #RebeccaEwing
Starring: #NinaDobrev, #JimmyOYang
Los Angeles journalist Natalie (Dobrev), who earns a living writing about her unlucky dating encounters, is on a quest to find her ‘other half’ through online dating. After seemingly finding the perfect match in good looking Tag (Darren Barnet), she takes a leap of faith and catches a flight to the East Coast to surprise him for Christmas, only to discover she has been catfished by his childhood friend, Josh (Yang).
The light-hearted American romantic comedy, released on Netflix November 5, chronicles her attempts to reel in love, only to not quite hit the mark with a sappy, unconvincing tread into all too familiar waters. The movie begins strongly with an endearing introduction to our main lead, the down on her luck Natalie, who is presented to us with snappy editing showcasing her disastrous past date experiences, which is causing her to lose hope to eventually find the right guy for her. Lush and warm cinematography throughout creates a fitting Christmas feel-good mood to the film, with inviting colourful visuals which keep the movie watchable, despite its shortcomings.
The film’s title is a nod to the combination of Natalie and Josh’s favourite Christmas movies (Die Hard and Love Actually), which, unfortunately are not the only pop culture references the movie makes to appeal to the modern market. Once Natalie meets the real Josh, the screenplay is never able to successfully maintain the quirky tone it established in the first act, with a meandering and predictable plot as Natalie would rather go after the hotter Tag. We are presented with several set pieces of her attempting to navigate the awkward love triangle, with some nice comedic moments, but it is a mostly bland journey to its inevitable conclusion. As with many cliched rom coms, it is easy to see where things are leading to as Natalie realises the sporty daredevil type isn’t for her and the one she really wants was in front of her all along – of course it’s Josh!
The film can be too sickly sweet at times with its attempts to showcase the ‘true love’ between Natalie and Josh, whose actors unfortunately do not share believable onscreen chemistry. It is ironic when Natalie cringes at the famous written love confession scene in Love Actually featuring fake carol singers and puppy dog eyes, when the very movie she is a part of can be just as sentimental and corny. The souless romantic gestures in the film, especially in regard to its cute but undeniably unrealistic ending, will certainly not appeal to everyone. Both Nina Dobrev and Jimmy Yang give good performances and have enough charisma to carry us through the shoddy script, but paired together, they act more like good friends or siblings and it is very difficult to buy into their eventual romance.
Love Hard is generally a watchable, feel good Christmas flick with the typical clichés one should come to expect from a cheesy rom com. Although the visuals are appealing, the messy and all too familiar narrative combined with a lack of believable chemistry between its two leads, makes this movie fall into forgettable territory.
Love Hard (2021) trailer:
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