Love Hard Review (2021) – A Cozy, Modern Holiday Rom-Com about Identity, Honesty, and Loving the Person Behind the Profile!
We potatoes love a good holiday movie night, and we love it even more when a film actually surprises us. Love Hard (2021) is one of those rare, delightful surprises… the kind we didn’t see coming, but really needed. A little Netflix gem that somehow slipped through the cracks of the December movie avalanche. Maybe it’s because we were bracing for yet another cookie cutter Hallmark clone, but instead we found something funnier, sweeter, and far more emotionally grounded than we ever expected!
This is one of those films that feels familiar, but not predictable. Warm, but not syrupy. Playful, but not hollow. And as always, we potatoes do want to give a soft caution here. Love Hard leans into themes like online identity, loneliness, insecurity, family pressure, cat-fishing, public humiliation, and the painful gap between who we are and who we are told we are supposed to be. Nothing too heavy, but still things to be mindful of. As always, please take care of you.
We will avoid major spoilers, though some mild ones will be there as we discuss the plot. Please read with care.
Let’s jump on that plane!
We open on a montage of beautiful Los Angeles scenery. The title of the film appears on screen, and then we meet one of our main characters, Natalie (Nina Dobrev), a dating columnist in Los Angeles who has built her whole career around writing about her disastrous love life. She swipes endlessly, dates relentlessly, crashes and burns repeatedly, and pours it all into her writing.
This is Natalie’s life. Every failed date becomes another article, another story for her readers, another reason to roll her eyes at the universe. As she narrates her love life in a voice-over, we potatoes see a short montage of hilariously bad dates that go from mildly awkward to wildly chaotic. It is a festive parade of red flags.
“But honestly, I’m not sure how much longer I can do this. How is it that everyone has found the one, and I haven’t? Either I’m the unluckiest woman in the world, or my picker is broken.”
Typing away at her desk, Natalie exudes weariness. Her best friend Kerry (Heather McMahan), who delivers the truth with comedy and the bluntness only a ride or die friend can get away with. “It’s both. What’s the one common denominator in all of these dates? It’s you.” We potatoes have to say that we love Kerry! She is hilarious and extremely goofy! Still chatting she grabs Natalie’s phone…
“Jesus, Nat! You only have your dating radius sent to five miles. You gotta look outside West Hollywood.”
Kerry expands her dating search radius. Go wide. Go bold. Go across the entire country if needed. The love of your life might not be five miles away, he might be five time zones away!
Natalie’s boss Lee (Matty Finochio) encourages the messiness, practically begging her for more “disaster content.”
“Natalie, where’s my next story? I’m assuming your next date is lined up.”
Natalie tries to push back it, “I was thinking for the next one, maybe we’ll try something different. Like..."
Lee does not want to hear it and is insistent so Natalie plays along, but we can all see that the humor is wearing thin.
“Remember, a disaster for you is a hit for me, okay?”
Later, back at her apartment, Natalie is sitting on her couch after doing a little decorating. It is the holiday season, she is alone, and she is starting to wonder if maybe the problem is… her, like Kerry said.
So Natalie opens her dating app and starts swiping. Not long into it… there he is! The handsome, outdoorsy, rugged Josh Lin.
They match. They message. They click so quickly and so easily that the whole moment feels dipped in warmth and Christmas lights. Their conversations are witty, sweet, and strangely sincere. Their chemistry is instant! Their banter is adorable! Josh listens. Josh remembers things she says. Their late night phone calls are cozy, glowing things that make Natalie’s whole face soften.
Natalie is so swept up in this connection that she decides that she wants to write an ecstatic piece about finally meeting Mr. Right. The perfect guy. Someone who may even be worth traveling for.
Then one day, Josh messages her while she is at work:
“I wish you could be here for Christmas. Is that crazy?”
She does not have much time to react, as she is called into Lee’s office. He is demanding his next story and is not happy with how long Natalie is taking to write him one. Natalie tries to tell him about her current relationship that she believes could be real, but Lee is skeptical. He goes through some of her past dates with her, but she is standing her ground.
“Natalie, here’s the deal, okay? Your dating life is a disaster. But you should be thankful because it’s why you have a job.”
She tries to pitch him on a piece where she actually finds love, but Lee is not hearing it.
“You know what? As of this moment right now, my disaster dating days are over. I’m going to fly to Lake Placid, New York. I’m gonna surprise Josh, and I’m gonna get my happy ending.”
“I’m sorry. So, you haven’t even met this dude yet?”
“Well, not… not in person, but…”
“Oh, I take it all back. No, I take everything back. You should write about this. You should fly across the country and surprise a virtual stranger for the holidays. This is gonna be your most epic disaster date yet.”
“You’re wrong, Lee, and I’m gonna show you. Because this is going to be the most epic love story that you have ever read. Now if you’ll please excuse me, I have bags to pack.”
For the first time, Natalie feels seen, heard, and appreciated. So naturally, she is going to fly across the country for Christmas to surprise Josh and she has Kerry’s full support! “Hey. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. You, my friend, are about to fly 3,000 miles to meet up with a guy who is literally the polar opposite of anybody you’ve ever dated before, so… oh my god. The mother of all ironies is, this might be the most sane thing you’ve ever done!”
Natalie arrives in Lake Placid giddy with excitement… until she discovers that her luggage is missing. Unfortunate, but she is not going to let that slow her down or upset her… although her Uber driver Eric just might. Setting that aside, she gets there!
Natalie walks up to the Lin house, enters, and meets his family, his father Bob Lin (James Saito), Grandmother June Kin (Althea Kaye) and stepmother Barb Lin (Rebecca Staab). Natalie then practically introduces herself as his girlfriend!
Thrilled, his stepmother Barb calls for him! “Josh! Someone’s here to see you!”
“The UPS guy’s not here to see me. Just sign for the package!”
“It’s not UPS! Just come up!”
A confused Josh (Jimmy O. Yang), enters the room… “Natalie?! What are you doing here?”
It is here that Natalie discovers… she has been cat-fished!
Dumbfounded, and shocked, she turns around and leaves the house.
Wrapping it up from here! Josh chases after her… and this sets off the chaotic holiday domino effect that carries the film forward. Josh is real. Their conversations were real. His heart and humor were real. But the face in the photos was not his. Josh manages to convince her to stay for the holiday and pretend to be his girlfriend, and he will help her get with the man she thought she was coming to see. The man whose photos he stole. A man named Tag (Darren Barnet).
Eager to avoid another dating “failure” story, Natalie agrees. Together they try to turn her into the perfect woman for Tag, while at the same time pretending to be dating each other in front of Josh’s family. The lies pile up… and of course it all gets extremely out of hand.
This film is a cute and unexpectedly well-written ride! And we potatoes were surprised that the movie handles this premise with nuance rather than cruelty. It acknowledges harm without flattening anyone into a villain. It lets the characters make mistakes, learn from them, and stumble their way into honesty.
Josh is not a malicious person pretending to be someone else for the fun of it or for financial gain. He is insecure, and struggles with feeling invisible, dismissed, and undervalued. Online, he gets to be heard. He gets to be chosen. While we potatoes can empathize with him, and understand that the dating world is so incredibly tough, cat-fishing is never a good idea. Building any relationship on lies is never a wise or ethical choice.
At the same time… when you meet his brother, you can kind of understand why he feels so invisible. Owen (Harry Shum Jr.), Josh’s older brother, struts through this film like a full-blown holiday peacock. Owen is the golden child of the Lin family, a man so obsessed with himself that he practically exudes narcissism. He always manages to make everything circle back to his own greatness. Every compliment only fuels his already towering ego. In the end, Owen does try and means well in that frustrating, oblivious way some siblings do, but his constant need to one-up Josh makes him hilarious to watch and genuinely exhausting to be related to.
Like we potatoes said, it makes sense that Josh struggles to feel seen, heard and valuable. It is easier for him to hide and pretend to be someone else.
Natalie, on her side, is also hiding. Not behind someone else’s face, but behind the persona of the “disaster dater,” the woman who performs her vulnerability for an audience and calls it authenticity. She comes to Lake Placid with an inflated belief that she knows who she is. But here, she has to confront the ways she has been dishonest with herself, and finds herself being just as dishonest as Josh was to her… to Tag.
That is the surprising magic of Love Hard. Under the lights, under the mistletoe, and under all the classic holiday tropes, this film understands that identity is messy. Honesty is complicated. And being truthful about who we are can be terrifying.
Josh and Natalie begin to rebuild their connection, but now in person, and with the truth in the room. The story explores how relationships grow when people see each other clearly instead of through curated profiles. The chemistry between them feels tangible and real. Josh’s kindness, creativity, gentleness, and awkward humor shine. Natalie’s vulnerability, sincerity, humor, and willingness to own her missteps become just as radiant as her charm.
One of the loveliest surprises of the film is how well it balances humor with heart. Love Hard is truly funny. Not sitcom funny. Not corny rom-com funny. It is actually funny! Jimmy O. Yang’s comedic timing is impeccable. Heather McMahan as Kerry is so incredibly fun, and hilarious. Nina Dobrev brings a grounded emotional core to the chaos. Darren Barnet as Tag, the “face” Josh used in the photos, is charming and layered in ways that avoid cliché. The ensemble cast brings warmth and big holiday energy without tipping into caricature.
We potatoes have to give a heartfelt shout-out to Josh’s stepmother Barb, because what an unexpected breath of fresh air she is! In a world that loves to paint stepmothers as frosty, conniving, or outright wicked, she is instead gentle, genuine, and deeply invested in Josh’s well-being. Their relationship is soft in that every day, quietly supportive way… the kind that doesn’t need dramatic speeches to feel real. She listens to him, encourages him, and treats him like her own without ever forcing it. Watching her care for Josh with patience and affection is genuinely lovely, and we potatoes found it refreshing to see a blended family dynamic that isn’t steeped in conflict, but in kindness.
This film could have easily fallen into harmful stereotyping or shallow romantic tropes, but instead it brings forward conversations about insecurity, identity, dating fatigue, dishonesty, and the messy truth that everyone wants to be seen and wanted for who they actually are. That beauty or attraction is not the same as connection. That relationships built on honesty, genuine compatibility and kindness last longer than connections built on illusion. There is a comfort and truth here, the truth that authenticity is far more romantic than perfection.
So, is Love Hard perfect? Not quite. It plays lightly with serious issues. Some scenes lean into cringe. And the ending lands in the familiar territory of holiday rom-com wish fulfillment. But honestly… that is part of the charm. This is the kind of December film you watch for warmth, for fun, for laughter, and for that little spark of holiday magic we all need sometimes. (Especially now…)
We really enjoyed this one, and overall, we potatoes highly recommend Love Hard! We needed a break from the heaviness of the world and something to help us ease into the holiday spirit. Join us, and take a break with this incredibly cute, cozy, modern, heartfelt, and just a little bit chaotic film! It is a holiday rom-com that actually respects its audience. It understands that love is not about grand gestures. It is about truth, vulnerability, and the courage to let someone see the real you.
So, cheers to Natalie for taking a risk! Cheers to Josh for finally stepping into his own worth! Cheers to the families who actually try their best! And most importantly, cheers to you! May you be loved for who you truly are, not for the profile picture the world expects from you.
Now, let us grab our cocoa, wrap ourselves in blankets, and settle in for a holiday film that delights!
We give this film 4 out of 5 Kiwi martinis!
The Love Hard Drinking Game
Take a sip anytime:
Anyone lies
Anyone says “Josh”
Anyone mentions candles
Anyone says “catfish/catfished”
Natalie calls or talks to Kerry
Kerry is hilarious
Owen is an asshole
Owen acts jealous or needs all the attention for himself
Lee is a douche
Eric pops up
Tag is clueless
Texting/messaging on screen
The main characters talk on the phone
Shenanigans on screen
What did you think? Did you like the movie? Did you hate it? What movies should we watch? Any and all thoughts are welcome! Let us know in the comments!
Do you like this drinking game? Are there rules missing? Is the game too intense? Are there movies that you think we should make a drinking game for? Let us know in the comments and always remember to be safe and drink responsibly! (Drinks can be water, soda, anything nonalcoholic, etc. Please be safe, have fun and take care of you!)