Love Hard Movie Review

Last night, I watched one of Netflix's brand new Christmas romcoms titled Love Hard. I was honestly pretty excited about it already just from the trailer. Its leading actress is Nina Dobrev, who stars alongside Jimmy O. Yang. I had already seen him a bit in Fresh Off the Boat and Crazy Rich Asians as the weird, unattractive Asian man, so I was really excited to see him as the love interest—and, not to mention, Glee's Harry Chum Jr. as his on-screen brother. Yes, we have already seen some Asian studs getting more attention from the media, such as Simu Liu, Daniel Dae Kim, and John Cho. But there is not a lot of positive attention towards what is stereotypically the typical Asian kid, aka short and wears glasses. The hot main character ends up really falling for the underdog, and not just because of his personality like every other romcom. She compliments his nice eyes and his smile that boasts his perfect teeth, not his humour or intelligence. Let's be honest, we aren't first attracted to someone's personality upon first glance. Obviously, I'm not saying it's better to objectify Asian men than pointing out character traits, but it makes it more authentic.

Without giving away any spoilers, I'll give you the gist of it. Natalie, A woman in LA has so many dating disasters, it becomes her job to blog about her unlucky attempts at finding love. That is, until her friend expands her distance preference and finds the perfect guy, Josh Lin. It just so happens that he lives across the country in Lake Placid, New York. She talks to him on the phone all the time and really starts to believe he is the one. When she decides to surprise him for Christmas, she finds out that she was catfished! But, the story doesn't end here—it's only beginning. She finds out the the guy who her dream man used for his pictures, Tag, actually exists. So, she makes a deal with him to pretend to be his girlfriend to please his family while he helps her score a chance with the real Tag. You might think you know exactly where this is heading, but it's the journey to the end that makes the movie.

Despite Rotten Tomatoes giving the movie a harsh 50% and IMDB's rating of 6.3/10, I would actually give this movie a 9/10! One of the best parts about a romcom is that it's predictable, but you never fully know what's going to happen, or when. I thought it was super sweet and had tons of well-timed hilarious moments throughout the film. Even if it's not the LGBTQIA+ Christmas movie to make up for the disaster that was Happiest Season, I found myself pleasantly surprised with this little romcom. Also, once you watch the movie, the title makes perfect sense!