Well bugger me, just as I'm starting to feel like I've had enough, along comes a film that restores my faith in modern Christmas movies, emerging as an unexpected, enjoyable guilty pleasure. 2021's Love Hard is a cheesy but enjoyable opposites-attract romcom with a modern, millennial twist.
For once it’s a timely, original premise - a lonely, twenty-something is 'catfished' by a geeky guy on the internet but ends up realising the man who duped her might just be the one she's been looking for all along. Helmer Hernan Jimenez's film is suitably schmaltzy but goes much deeper than most daft festive romances, posing questions about our modern image-obsessed, 'swipe right' dating culture.
Fair enough, this is another 'big city girl finds love in snowy small town' tale but this has more bite than most. Our lead is Nina Dobrev's Nina, an L.A. dating columnist, convinced that she's finally found The One through a dating app. 'Josh' is full of sweet banter and insight, looks stunning and might just be her soulmate. Of course, it's all too good to be true and Natalie gets a nasty yuletide shock when, after flying 3,000 miles to surprise her E-beau, she discovers Josh (Jimmy O. Yang) is actually a nerdy Oriental-American candle-making slacker who lives in his parents' basement.
Rather than dwelling on Josh's deception, the film smartly veers off into cutesie, familiar 'let's pretend to be a couple for mutual benefit' territory. Josh will help Natalie get close to Tag (Darren Barnet) - the real hunk from his profile pics, as long as Nat poses as his girlfriend for the holidays to help him get one over on his irritatingly perfect brother Owen (Harry Shum Jr.).
It's improbable but humorous stuff, with the film not-so-subtly showing that Natalie - so upset at being duped by Josh - is essentially doing the same thing with rugged, outdoorsy Tag who she really has nothing in common with but fakes it to get close to him. Cue lots of fun/awkward rock-climbing, hiking and even bob-sledding.
The message is a well-worn but important one about looks not being everything and is a pretty sweet reminder for today's looks-obsessed young 'uns that sometimes the thing you think you want may be completely wrong for you. You can bet your ass that Josh, despite his deception, will (SPOILER!!!) turn out to be the love of Natalie's life.
Honestly, this one is better than maybe I've made it sound, due to some snappy dialogue and very agreeable performances from Dobrev and Yang. It's to their credit that when these two first meet, it seems there would be no chance in hell they would end up together. But, as the film goes on, their characters evolve, especially Josh who grows from stalker-ish weirdo to loveable poetic fool.
The film's clumsy title is a fusion of Love, Actually and Die Hard, our two leads' most favourite Christmas movies. Though this movie's plot bears zero resemblance to either of those festive faves, its climax does feature a funny, intelligent homage to both.
Going into this one feeling jaded and cynical, I'm surprised to come out the other end with a lump in my throat. That's surely the sign of some seriously effective, spellbinding Hollywood magic. My favourite part involves Josh trying to explain his burgeoning "scented candles for men'' business - hear me out here. He's perfected a candle that captures the scent of his recently deceased and dearly missed grandfather. When he presents it to his dad (James Saito), who's always been critical of this business idea, dad finally gets it and it brings the two of them closer together.
For context, let me explain that I watch this one the morning after visiting a big Guy Fawkes Night fireworks display with the family.. At the display I was struck by how much the distinctive smell of grass, smoke and food trucks vividly reminded me of going wild at music festivals in my twenties and it made me all nostalgic and emotional. Those days feel long behind me now and maybe that's a big reason this film gets to me - tears from a smell? That's something special.
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