Movie Review: Love Hard (2021) on Netflix
First, Love Hard is not a porn movie. It's a holiday rom com and it's adorably innocent fun. You see, it's another of those Christmas movies that isn't really about Christmas it just takes place around the holiday season, and a couple of the characters reference their favorite Christmas movies that also aren't really about Christmas they just take place around the holiday: Love Actually and Die Hard. Thus, they form this movie's title from those two titles. Get it?
In this film, Natalie Bauer (played by Nina Dobrev) writes articles about failed dates. Her whole love life is an amalgam of failed first dates. But she has been using a new dating app and she has met this amazing new guy, Tag (played by Darren Barnet), who has amazing photos and says the most amazing things and has set Natalie's heart atwitter. Natalie lives in L.A. and Tag lives in Lake Placid, NY, but Tag mentions, wouldn't it be wonderful if she could join him for Christmas? All seems too good to be true, but maybe this is finally the first date that breaks the mold for Natalie, so she makes plans to surprise Tag and join him unannounced for the holidays.
You can imagine, when Natalie gets to Tag's house it isn't as she imagined it. Tag is actually Josh (played by Jimmy O. Yang)--Tag was Josh's best friend in high school so Josh has lots of photos and stories to fake his identity. But now Josh's family has met Natalie and everyone's expectations are very high, so to save face Natalie and Josh agree to fake their relationship through Christmas and then they will break it off. In exchange, Josh will arrange for Natalie to meet and date Tag. What could go wrong with all that? You will see.
This is ultimately about truth and honesty. Everyone's feelings are tested. Some of the writing is cliched but if you can accept the original concept and enjoy the innocence of the ploy, it's a fun holiday-themed story with a hopeful end. The final scenes are a nice touch. I would rate Love Hard a B^ for brings the love home. It would make a great way to start the Christmas/holiday movie season.
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