Love Hard

Actually, love ain’t what it used to be in our age of dating apps and catfishing….

There is nothing more predictable towards the end of the year than the obligatory appearance of Yuletide movies. Most of them make a quick return and then die the death. Here we have a film that is set during Christmas, but it could work at any time of the year. That said, production designer Patrick M. Sullivan has brought a definite Yuletide warmth to the picture with his cosy accumulation of Christmas decorations that would put any other street adornments to shame. So, it looks good as a backdrop to what would normally be a serious subject - that of catfishing, the present-day art of pretending online that you are somebody else.

The plot centres on Natalie (Nina Dobrev), a Los Angeles online journalist who specialises in writing about her own disastrous dating experiences. Getting nowhere with her choice of terrible meetings in her own neighbourhood, she takes the advice of a colleague who suggests she goes national. Suddenly she is communicating on her mobile phone with what appears to be a suitable man, getting on well with her new friend Josh (Jimmy O. Yang). Even though he lives on the other side of the States, in Lake Placid, she is determined to meet him, so sets off for New York to surprise him at Christmas. Of course, Josh is not exactly what she had in mind when she finally meets him because he has used a photograph of a former friend, one Tag (Darren Barnet), in order to disguise the fact that he is Asian.

Having arrived without her luggage, Natalie makes Josh tell his family that she is his girlfriend until after Christmas when they will split and Natalie will return home. As Josh has never had a girlfriend before, his family is overjoyed. How Natalie and Josh resolve the situation provides, as they say, hilarious results along the way. Nina Dobrev is ideally cast as Natalie, half knowing and half innocent but in a turmoil most of the time without going too far overboard, while Jimmy O. Yang as the nerdish Josh makes an adorable foil. Both characters are desperate to find their other half and the two actors play well together. Josh's family are a hoot, led by James Saito as father Bob, Rebecca Staab as stepmother Barb, Althea Kaye as the grandmother, and Harry Shum Jr as their other, successful son Owen with his trophy wife Chelsea (Mikaela Hoover).

The screenplay is loaded with smart lines and director Herman Jimenez keeps the plot bubbling away for what otherwise might be a conventional and predictable tale. It is not a classic comedy as such but while it is playing out a contemporary problem in an amusing style, it does what it says on the tin. Incidentally, the title refers to a combination of Josh's favourite romcom, Love Actually, and Natalie's choice of Die Hard which, as somebody points out, is hardly a Christmas movie. Nevertheless, Love Hard is one festive film worth catching.

MICHAEL DARVELL

Cast: Nina Dobrev, Jimmy O. Yang, Darren Barnet, James Saito, Rebecca Staab, Harry Shum Jr, Althea Kaye, Mikaela Hoover, Matty Finochio, Seth Whittaker.

Dir Herman Jimenez, Pro McG and Mary Viola, Screenplay Danny Mackey and Rebecca Ewing, Ph Shane Hurlbut, Pro Des Patrick M. Sullivan, Ed Priscilla Nedd-Friendly, Music Mark Orton, Costumes Caroline Cranstoun.

Wonderland Sound and Vision-Netflix.
104 mins. USA. 2021. Rel: 5 November 2021. Available on Netflix. Cert 12A .