Love Hard - Lighthearted and Fun Enough Rom-Com to Keep Us Interested

This movie was already released on Netflix since Friday, but somehow it seemed to have eluded me. Only when I was really looking at it that I got intrigued and decided to watch it last night, together with my wife who is a fan of rom-com. Well let's get started then.

Brief Story Line

Natalie (Nina Dobrev - Flatliners, The Final Girls etc) was a young woman truly unlucky in love after finding imperfect guys on online dating app. That was until she finally met the one she really felt connection with named Tag (Darren Barnet - Never Have I Ever TV series, American Pie Presents: Girls' Rules etc). Unfortunately he lived so far away that she never got the chance to see him.

Persuaded by her best friend Kerry (Heather McMahan) and her boss Lee (Matty Finochio), Natalie decided to surprise Tag during the Christmas holiday. 

So was it as perfect as she thought it would be? Find them all in this light and fun enough rom-com movie.

End of Brief Story Line

Now I got to admit the reason I was intrigued was because of the synopsis given by Netflix, which actually gave a hint of what would happen. So it was no big surprise when the story progressed as it did. But the one thing that I did not expect was how fun the journey was, even if it was pretty much predictable. I actually like the smart writing of the movie as the dialogues were quite witty and there were some humor here and there, especially when Natalie was giving her narrative. I thought the writers Danny Mackey and Rebecca Ewing plus the director Hernan Jimenez (prior works including Elsewhere, About Us etc) did a well enough job.

What made the movie interesting for me was how up to date the topic was, as it is quite common nowadays for people to find the person of their dreams through online dating app. And what happened in this movie was something that indeed could happen in real life. The characters involved here were also pretty engaging where we were quite attached with them. 

Aside from Nina Dobrev and Darren Barnet, there were also the additional cast who were quite crucial to the story, including Jimmy O. Yang (Fantasy Island, Wish Dragon etc) as Josh Lin, James Saito (Always be my Maybe etc) as Josh's father Bob Lin, Althea Kaye as Grandma June Lin and Harry Shum Jr (Escape Plan: The Extractors, Glee TV series etc). They all made the movie much more alive (that caroling scene was quite fun to watch). 

Aside from the fun story, I also like the songs in here, like I Just Died in Your Arms Tonight by Cutting Crew, Don't You (Forget About Me) by Simple Minds and few others including the lovely Christmas songs.  They certainly added the Christmas feel which was already strong by the decorations and the snow all around the city. Yes, I think this one could be categorized as movie for Christmas (there was even that classic debate about Die Hard as well). 

Overall I thought this was a quite interesting rom-com. It might not be the most classic one but it did an adequate job in keeping us interested till the end. Despite the rather predictable outcome, the journey itself was still pleasing to watch. I myself quite enjoy watching this together with my wife, where we had some fun and laughs and a change of pace after seeing multiple action or suspenseful movies for a while. So if you are interested in a lighthearted rom-com with a Christmas setting and some up to date topic, then you can give it a try. 

Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars