You have to buy the whole sleigh ride, however bumpy things get, to feel the joy “Love Hard” wants to deliver. Some of the movie’s internal logic doesn’t quite come together either, like how Natalie strongly objects to even hearing “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” on the radio but sticks around to help the guy who lied to her. Dobrev and Yang make the most of their parts, and give their characters an emotional edge, but it’s not enough to save them from the predictable moments, the simplistic comic misunderstandings, and the embarrassing set-ups.
“Love Hard” may be more of an expressly Christmas movie than “Die Hard,” but I’m not sure it’ll warrant as many repeated viewings. It’s as if these things were added in a later draft. These details, while timely, don’t seem to quite fit in with the story or characters as some of the other aspects of the movie. Her repeated arguments about “ Die Hard” as a Christmas movie? Same thing. Natalie’s gripes about “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” seem to be taken straight from the number of articles that seem to perennially spring up about the song’s lyrics. The reason Josh gives Natalie for why he catfished her is because Asian men may find themselves discriminated against on dating apps.
#PICTURE THIS MOVIE SCENES SERIES#
Online dating is ubiquitous, and catfishing-a person pretending to be someone else online-is popular enough that MTV had an entire series exploring the trend. It’s a mortifying scene played for laughs, but it feels weirdly mean for an otherwise mostly pleasant comedy.Īnother odd feature of “Love Hard” is that the story seems to have taken hints from trending topics to find some of its plot points. Unfortunately, the shots have a fruit she’s deathly allergic to, and her face balloons from the reaction. This is perhaps the most egregious when Natalie downs shots at a bar for some liquid courage to try and seduce Tag. However, Daniel Mackey and Rebecca Ewing’s script sometimes goes overboard, slipping from the “how sweet, how funny” kind of comedy to cheap cringe. Almost every scene with Natalie, Josh, and Josh’s family-which includes Grandma (Takayo Fischer), his dad Bob ( James Saito), step-mom Barb ( Rebecca Staab) and competitive brother Owen (Harry Shum Jr.) and his wife Chelsea ( Mikaela Hoover)-is a winner, playing up the pressure on the faux couple to keep up the charade. In turn, Josh promises to help her win over the man whose photos she originally fell for even if it’s as deceptive as what Josh did to her.Īlthough it doesn't have the yuletide joy I had hoped for, “Love Hard” has its endearing moments. Outraged but now stuck in Lake Placid without her luggage, Natalie decides to stay and pass herself off as Josh’s girlfriend in order to impress his family. He used the photos of a former friend, Tag ( Darren Barnet), to talk to women after being ignored on dating apps for so long. Yang) doesn’t look like the pictures he sent her. At her friend and boss’ insistence (the latter wants another disastrous dating column out of the experience), Natalie travels across the country to Lake Placid, New York, to meet the man of her dreams. After a particularly long conversation, the long distance digital boyfriend pines that he wishes Natalie would be there for Christmas.
Finally, she matches with a smiling face who’s exciting to talk to and charming. After a string of particularly rough disappointments, a friend widens her dating app’s search radius to include the whole country. who has made a career out of writing about her terrible love life for a cringeworthy site. Natalie ( Nina Dobrev) is a woman in L.A.
Some moments are sweeter than others, but overall, this cookie cutter rom-com has nothing more or less than what its subgenre demands. Getting ahead of this year’s festivities, Hernán Jiménez’s “Love Hard” tries its hardest to win over romantic comedy fans with a modern tale of a dating app match gone awry. ‘Tis the season for sweaters, warm drinks, and oh yeah, holiday movies.
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