‘Love Hard’ Wants You To Believe It’s Better Than ‘Love Actually’

Much like the relationships at the center of this rom-com, Love Hard is difficult to embrace.

Instead of leaning into this Christmas cat-fishing tale’s wacky nonsense, the film insists on wedging commentary about honest love in the age of online dating between increasingly superficial ideals and a surface-level search for romance.

Love Hard takes aim at Love Actually early on for being the rom-com for pretty people (not even the worst part of that film, but okay), only to recycle the same problematic behavior.

Sure, you won’t find Carol Singers at the door, but you will find this hot woke mess.

However woke this concept is in hindsight, the choppy execution fumbles any chances to be better than the problematic Christmas songs and movies it holds in contempt.

This self-aware romance wants us to believe what’s on the inside counts, just so it can seek out ways to make Natalie less attractive in her first encounters with Tag, and turn Josh’s questionable actions into endearing plot points.

Sure, I understand that people in these films tend to be a hot mess but accountability is still attractive.

Love Hard attempts to highlight the difficult dating encounters women endure, before proceeding to diminish their experiences in the name of a happy ending — one that provides the same red flags as Natalie’s previous matches. But Josh has trouble with women and he makes his own candles, so it’s okay this time.

This self-contained confidence often leads to a lack of genuine romantic or comical elements. It is the fault of bizarre pacing, which showcases likable tropes that never come together cohesively, and melancholy tones that are entirely out of place in this shallow world.

To embrace the magic of the bizarre genre that is holiday movies, one must learn to love impractical, over-the-top rom-coms. But, I don’t love when the film’s “wackiness” has to come at the expense of the female lead.

Writing women as confident does not mean they have to come across only as loud and “crazy”. However, most of these female leads do and Natalie’s blind quest is simply a mouthpiece for whatever this scatter-brained plot wants to try next.

There’s no genuine connection between her and the audience. There’s also a fine line between problematic and unredeemable.

It’s a line both love interests toe as they do horrible things for love with weak-sauce deflection. Unless they apologized to Christmas-hating Tag for catfishing him (twice) they don’t exactly deserve the audience’s support — but clearly, Natalie and Josh deserve each other.

Love Hard spends too much time contradicting the same values it tries to pedal, and far less time being a likable romantic comedy.

And it could be likable, it really could — because this cast is fantastic! Nina Dobrev is an old pro at the genre, Jimmy O. Yang is the lead more rom-coms desperately need, and James Saito continues to prove he is the Godfather of Netflix films.

Don’t even get me started on Harry Shum Jr., who hasn’t missed a beat since he walked on screen as Magnus Bane in Shadowhunters. Even as the spoiled brother, the man knows how to command a scene — and if Netflix knew better, they would never let him go.

The most capable scene of this film features their dysfunctional family going caroling with choreographed dancing, pelvic thrusting, tantrums, revenge baby announcements — the whole nine yards! It’s the kind of Christmas chaos I wish this film had chosen over prosthetic karaoke and forced marriage proposals.

I wish I could pick this cast up and put them in a different movie. One that showcases their charm and potential, rather than shoving them to the side for a plot that is struggling to be half as dazzling.

This is one of those projects that will divide holiday movie enthusiasts because it does give returning genre fans a familiar one-note romance in a much flashier and complicated wrapping. But it is just that, a one-note romance.

There’s little room in this bloated plot for romance to fester after the initial meet-cute montage and, as a result, the chemistry is dismal. Darren Barnet disappears from the story quicker than Jordan Fisher in To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You, and almost all these characters need group therapy, not grand romantic gestures.

However, Natalie and Josh embrace their happy ending and it allows for that important last spark. Ironically, this film spends so much of its energy dissing Love Actually just to use the iconic (and yes, deeply problematic) sign confession to win us over.

(I love the scene reenacting the revelation that Andrew Lincoln is in Love Actually. Chelsea’s “he’s from Game of Thrones” truly sells this experience.)

If a Christmas rom-com needs to have anything to succeed, it’s a happy ending that sticks the landing. Love Hard finishes strong, but the road to get there is just too complicated for comfort.

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Love Hard is streaming now on Netflix.

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