Movie Review – Love Hard
In light of the holiday season, new movies are being released – a record number this year, with over 200 festive films listed on IMDB. Among these films is Hernán Jiménez’s Love Hard, released on November 5th, starring Nina Dobrev and Jimmy O. Yang.
Dobrev’s character, Natalie Bauer, works in Los Angeles as a dating column writer, who chronicles all her failed attempts at dating apps. Eventually, she expands her search radius and matches with a man named Josh Lin, who seems perfect at first – he’s handsome, has an interesting life, and Natalie develops a connection with him through their constant, lengthy phone calls.
Impulsively, she decides to visit him in New York, planning to finally have a successful love story to bring to her boss. However, once she arrives, she finds out she’s been catfished by Josh, who has been using Tag Abbott, another guy from his town, for his profile. Natalie plans to leave, but ends up staying to save Josh from embarrassing himself to his family. After a roller-coaster series of events, the movie eventually ends with a perfect, happy Christmas love story.
Being a Christmas enthusiast, I of course had to watch Love Hard, even though I’ve spent too many hours watching plenty of Hallmark Christmas movies with my mom. And like those movies, Love Hard is occasionally pretty cheesy, but aren’t most Christmas films? I appreciate the modernity of the film – it’s an interesting take to see how dating apps are incorporated into a traditional holiday love story (even if there’s some catfishing involved). Love Hard makes connections to another iconic Christmas movie, Love Actually, one of my favorite holiday movies, in a very sweet moment between Natalie and Josh.
While Dobrev captures the personality of her character well, Jimmy O. Yang was my favorite part of the movie. He’s effortlessly funny, and perfectly executes both comical moments and deeper, sadder scenes. His character shows the reality of the online dating app scene for someone who lacks confidence in themselves, knowing most people mainly swipe based on appearance. My favorite scene between Yang and Dobrev is their version of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside,” which is much different than the original. Yang and Dobrev are great together, which makes the movie that much more enjoyable.
Comparatively, Love Hard strays from the more traditional appearance of Christmas movie classics – The Polar Express, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Home Alone, especially stop-motion films like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town, and The Year Without a Santa Claus. The modern dating scene is central to Love Hard, and is its most unique quality that makes it a more interesting watch in comparison to quintessential Christmas movies. Dobrev’s Natalie Bauer is more relatable to audiences now, who might’ve also had their fair share of failed dating app experiences (especially through the pandemic). Love Hard offers a differentiation of the classic Christmas storyline of falling in love around the holidays, with a modern twist that’ll be sure to make audiences laugh and lift spirits through this crazy holiday season – all while providing the same comfort the traditional holiday films do.
If you’re looking for a slightly corny, funny, and sweet movie that encapsulates the drama and joys of Christmas, I recommend you give Love Hard a try. Have a safe holiday season!
