Released: 2021
Director: Hermen Jimenez
Writers: Daniel Mackey and Rebecca Ewing
Stars: Nina Dobrev, Jimmy O. Yang and Darren Barnet
Watch it: Netflix
Holiday score: 5
This movie doesn't have as much Christmas spirit as other holi-rom-coms, but they acknowledge that the song "Baby, It's Cold Outside" is incredibly creepy and that's worth something.
Romance score: 9
Likeable characters, believable and entertaining situations and a story that isn't guaranteed to end up the way you think it will.
Comedy score: 8
Multiple funny moments where you actually laugh.
After watching the movie lovehard, I felt like I'd seen a unicorn. You know, a mythical creature that only exists in your dreams. That's because I've found a holi-rom-com that scores a five or higher in all three categories. Even the classic movie While You Were Sleeping only gets a measly three for a holiday score. Take that Sandy Bullock. Normally I enjoy making fun of how bad holi-rom-coms are, but in this review I enjoy telling you about a truly great holi-rom-com.
lovehard stars Nina Dobrev as Natalie Bauer. She is a beautiful young woman who just can't find love. Again with beautiful people who can't find love. I'm sorry, but I will never feel sorry for beautiful people. Beautiful people get away with anything, like having a job as a writer who documents her many failed dates. Seriously, who can make a living at something as trivial as that? Beautiful people, that's who. The rest of us have to slave away at a rotten day job and blog for fun. Definitely not for profit.
Natalie's friend Barb, played by Rebecca Staab, suggests that Natalie expand her dating pool from just the Los Angeles area to the country. Natalie decides to give it a try and she swipes right on Josh, played by Jimmy O. Yang. Josh is handsome, super outdoorsy and is almost too perfect. Natalie and Josh really hit it off. They have wonderful conversations, watch movies together and they even fall asleep in each others arms...over the phone that is. What they never do is video call. It's kind of weird, but OK. Josh mentions that it would be great to see each other over Christmas and Natalie takes the bait. She decides to surprise Josh by flying to see him for Christmas.
***SPOILER ALERT***
The next two paragraphs have a mild spoiler though nothing more than you will see in the trailer. Skip the next two paragraphs if you don't plan on watching the trailer and want to be surprised.
When Natalie arrives at Josh's house, his family is ecstatic that he has a girlfriend. Which sets off alarm bells for Natalie and everyone watching. When Natalie sees Josh in person, she says, "Um, Josh, did you recently swap faces with your nemesis so you could convince his brother to tell you where the bomb is hidden?" That's because Josh doesn't look like the Josh from the profile. The Josh in the profile is hot and sporty. The Josh she meets in person is, well, regular.
Josh explains that he didn't catfish Natalie, he just uses a picture of his friend Tag, played by Daren Barnnet, to attract girls to swipe on his profile. So basically catfishing. Natalie is mad at Josh for lying to her and she is embarrassed that she flew all that way for nothing. She is ready to hop on a plane home, but Josh has a brilliant idea, which is holi-rom-com code for terrible idea that will create tons of havoc, but will eventually end up ok. Josh promises to help Natalie get with Tag if she will pretend to be his girlfriend for the holidays. Natalie, the glutton for punishment, decides to go along with it.
***SPOILER ALERT OVER***
Will Natalie find her happy ever after with the man of her dreams? Probably, but what are her dreams? Does she even know? Will Josh learn his lesson about lying online? If he does then he'll be the only one to learn this lesson...ever. Will everyone in this movie learn a life lesson and find love? It wouldn't be a holi-rom-com if they didn't. Well, you'll have to watch lovehard to find out and I whole hearted recommend that you do.
Holiday Score: 5
lovehard only gets a five for the holiday score. It actually doesn't have a lot of holiday stuff going on. It does happen over Christmas. There is snow. There are also gifts and caroling. If you've read my review of The Santa Stakeout then you know my feelings on caroling. Right now I'll say that it's awkward and leave it at that. That said, the caroling scene in lovehard is incredibly sweet and important to the story. It didn't change my mind on caroling, but it I'll allow it for this movie.
This movie also recognizes that the holiday classic Baby, It's Cold Outside is creepy as heck. Look, I am sure this song was written to be a sweet song about two lovers not wanting to say goodnight, but when it includes lines like "say, what's in this drink?", "what's the sense in hurting my pride?" and "the answer is no, but baby it's cold outside" you start to get the feeling that it was written by Bill Cosby. I can't take credit for the Bill Cosby reference, that is straight from this movie and that is why I've given it a decent holiday score.
Romance Score: 9
So, I don't want to give away too much of the plot and that is because it is wonderful. The main romance, I won't reveal which guy that is with, is sweet and real. It starts out a little weird, but it builds through various parts of the movie until you know what has to happen. The climax of the movie ends with a callback to a previous scene, which I love. That's all I'm going to say about the romance and that's because it wasn't good, it was great.
Comedy Score: 8
lovehard is a funny movie. I laughed out loud multiple times. The main characters had great lines and it had a couple of side characters that provided comic relief. I need to call out one character, that is Natalie's boss Lee played by Matty Finochio. He was also in the holi-rom-com Window Wonderland where he also played the boss to the main characters. He doesn't play a big huge part in either movie, but he kills it in both. I'm not sure if every movie needs a character for pure comic relief, but what would Frozen be without Olaf (Josh Gad) or High Fidelity without Barry (Jack Black) or Kip (Aaron Ruell) in Napoleon Dynamite? Lame, that's what.
If you are looking for a traditional holi-rom-com that fills your holiday reference quota, but leaves you wishing for more romance and comedy...you should probably look somewhere else.
If you are looking for a holi-rom-com that takes a serious situation and makes it seriously romantic and funny...then you should watch lovehard.
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