History Film / LoveHard

* AntiChristmasSong: Natalie and Josh sing their own version of "Baby It's Cold Outside" with more consenting tones.

Natalie Bauer (Creator/NinaDobrev) is an unlucky-in-love writer based in Los Angeles who turns her {{Dating Service Disaster}}s into a column. After her best friend sets her match radius to the entire country, Natalie quickly connects with a hunky, outdoorsy East Coaster named Josh Lin, and decides to fly cross-country to spend Christmas with him. Upon arriving at his home, however, she learns she's been [[{{Catfishing}} catfished]] and Josh (Creator/JimmyOYang) is really a nerdy BasementDweller. When she learns that the man she was attracted to, Tag Abbott (Creator/DarrenBarnet), lives in town, Natalie and Josh strike a deal: Josh will set her up with Tag if she pretends to be his girlfriend to his unsuspecting family--father Bob (Creator/JamesSaito), stepmom Barb (Rebecca Staab), brother Owen (Creator/HarryShumJr), sister-in-law Chelsea (Creator/MikaelaHoover), and grandmother June (Creator/AltheaKaye)--until Christmas.

* HollywoodDateless: Discussed, while Josh may not be traditionally handsome he isn't a bad looking guy, but he had only three matches on the dating app. Natalie asks to see his original profile she picks apart his poor choice of pictures (between holding rope as a rock climber, holding a wrench doing bathroom repair and his interest in candles she says he comes across as a TabletopGame/{{Clue}} character). She encourages him to be more natural in his photos and he would be more successful.

* BigBrotherInstinct: Despite Owen's jerkish and AttentionWhore tendincies, he's furious when he thinks that Natalie was cheating on and using Josh.

** Josh's brother Owen is an AttentionWhore along with his wife and isn't friendly or supportive towards Josh. Despite this, he does seem to care about Josh's well-being, as he suspects that Natalie is up to something, confronts her about it at the climax of the film, and genuinely seems sad that Josh and Natalie didn't work out.

* NotSoDifferentRemark: One theme of the movie is the double standards about misrepresenting yourself at the beginning of a relationship. Being less than honestly on a first date is considered bad practice, but also fairly common, whereas doing the same thing on a dating app is considered far more reprehensible. [[spoiler:When the truth is revealed, Tag comments that for all Natalie had disparaged Josh's catfishing, she was also pretending to be someone she wasn't when trying to snag ''him''.]]

* MacGuffin: Tag could be considered one, as he is somewhat of a FlatCharacter and mostly exists to get Nina to realize her actual love for Josh. It's also worth nothing that he [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse disappears once his purpose has been served and isn't mentioned by any of the characters again.]]

* BigBrotherInstinct: Despite Owen's {{Jerkass}} and AttentionWhore tendincies, he's furious when he thinks that Natalie was cheating on and using Josh.

--> '''Josh''': Okay. The first thing you need to know about Tag is he likes outdoorsy, adventurous women. Not Instagram models who count carbs
--> '''Natalie''': I don't count carbs. I monitor them.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Josh's brother Owen is an AttentionWhore along with his wife and isn't friendly or supportive towards Josh. Despite this, he does seem to care about Josh's well-being, as he suspects that Natalie is up to something, confronts her about it at the climax of the film, and genuinely seems sad that Josh and Natalie didn't work out.

* ChangingYourselfForLove: In order to snag the outdoorsy Tag, Natalie pretends to be an adventurous, athletic young woman who likes the things he likes (even if she can't stand Creator/HenryDavidThoreau), which gets to the point that she goes to his family's steakhouse despite being vegetarian. A SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome ensues as she realizes that she's not being true to herself ''and'' being a {{Hypocrite}} (having earlier called Josh out on faking his online dating profile), and fesses up to the rest of the town. An upset Tag leaves after calling her out and noting the hypocrisy.

* ChangingYourselfForLove: In order to snag the outdoorsy Tag, Natalie pretends to be an adventurous, athletic young woman who likes the things he likes (even if she can't stand Creator/HenryDavidThoreau). It gets to the point that she goes to his family's steakhouse despite being vegetarian.

Natalie Bauer (Creator/NinaDobrev) is an unlucky-in-love writer based in Los Angeles who turns her {{Dating Service Disaster}}s into a column. After her best friend sets her match radius to the entire country, Natalie quickly connects with a hunky, outdoorsy East Coaster named Josh Lin, and decides to fly cross-country to spend Christmas with him. Upon arriving at his home, however, she learns she's been catfished and Josh (Creator/JimmyOYang) is really a nerdy BasementDweller. When she learns that the man she was attracted to, Tag Abbott (Creator/DarrenBarnet), lives in town, Natalie and Josh strike a deal: Josh will set her up with Tag if she pretends to be his girlfriend to his unsuspecting family--father Bob (Creator/JamesSaito), stepmom Barb (Rebecca Staab), brother Owen (Creator/HarryShumJr), sister-in-law Chelsea (Creator/MikaelaHoover), and grandmother June (Creator/AltheaKaye)--until Christmas.

* HollywoodHomely: Zigzagged. Josh is considered to be not traditionally attractive--especially when contrasted with Tag. But it's also reveled that his lack of success on dating apps has little to do with that, and much more to do with some very poorly chosen profile photos.

* MissingMom: Natalie's mom died a year prior to the film. Josh's biological mother is also never seen, as he explicitly refers to Barb as his stepmother.

* InnocentlyInsensitive: While they are do love him, Owen and Josh's family as a whole honestly don't seem to grasp how they contribute to Josh's feelings of inadequacy.

* BigBrotherInstinct: Despite Owen's {{Jerkass}} and AttentionWhore, he's furious when he thinks that Natalie was cheating on and using Josh.

Natalie Bauer (Creator/NinaDobrev) is an unlucky-in-love writer based in Los Angeles who turns her {{Dating Service Disaster}}s into a column. After her best friend sets her match radius to the entire country, Natalie quickly connects with a hunky, outdoorsy East Coaster named Josh Lin, and decides to fly cross-country to spend Christmas with him. Upon arriving at his home, however, she learns she's been catfished and Josh (Creator/JimmyOYang) is really a nerdy BasementDweller. When she learns that the man she was attracted to, Tag Abbott (Creator/DarrenBarnet), lives in town, Natalie and Josh strike a deal: Josh will set her up with Tag if she pretends to be his girlfriend to his unsuspecting family -- father Bob (Creator/JamesSaito), stepmom Barb (Rebecca Staab), brother Owen (Creator/HarryShumJr), sister-in-law Chelsea (Creator/MikaelaHoover), and grandmother June (Creator/AltheaKaye) -- until Christmas.

** Natalie's boss Lee also counts - he's spent the entire film annoying and/or being antagonistic to her, but at the end he encourages her to be true to her feelings for Josh.

* NotSoDifferentRemark: [[spoiler:When the truth is revealed, Tag comments that for all Natalie had disparaged Josh's catfishing, she was also pretending to be someone she wasn't when trying to snag ''him''.]]

* OneHourWorkWeek:

* OpenMindedParent: Josh's [[EducationMama Asian dad]] Bob - he doesn't seem particularly concerned about Josh doing well in school or life and [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy just wants Josh to be happy,]] even if that means making candles for the rest of his life.

* StealthInsult: Natalie is full of these, particularly when making fun of Josh's job, insulting Owen, and disparaging Thoreau.
-->'''Natalie:''' Well, some people find him[[note]]Thoreau[[/note]] to be a self-obsessed narcissist, fanatical about self-control, not to mention a total hypcorite...but personally, I find him so inspiring!

Natalie Bauer (Creator/NinaDobrev) is an unlucky-in-love writer based in Los Angeles who turns her {{Dating Service Disaster}}s into a column. After her best friend sets her match radius to the entire country, Natalie quickly connects with a hunky, outdoorsy East Coaster named Josh Lin, and decides to fly cross-country to spend Christmas with him. Upon arriving at his home, however, she learns she's been catfished and Josh (Creator/JimmyOYang) is really a nerdy BasementDweller. When she learns that the man she was attracted to, Tag Abbott (Darren Barnet), lives in town, Natalie and Josh strike a deal: Josh will set her up with Tag if she pretends to be his girlfriend to his unsuspecting family -- father Bob (Creator/JamesSaito), stepmom Barb (Rebecca Staab), brother Owen (Creator/HarryShumJr), sister-in-law Chelsea (Mikaela Hoover), and grandmother June (Althea Kaye) -- until Christmas.

* AuthenticationByNewspaper: Kerry demands that Josh send a photo of himself with a newspaper to verify his identity. Josh sends a photo of himself with a personalized message, which satisfies Kerry and Natalie. Subverted, though, since the real Josh Photoshopped it.

* DatingServiceDisaster: Exploited. Natalie gets several bad dates while on dating apps, and has turned these into her day job: she writes about them for a ShallowNewsSiteSatire named Soash Media.

* OldPeopleAreNonsexual: Downplayed, but Natalie is scandalized by Grandma June's brazen questions about dating apps, and the elderly characters' interest in the sexual aspects of dating again are played as jokes. However, they are still encouraged to go out and date again, with Grandma June having started a profile of her own by the time of the epilogue.

** Josh gets a few in himself towards Natalie.

Natalie Bauer (Creator/NinaDobrev) is an unlucky-in-love writer based in Los Angeles who turns her {{Dating Service Disaster}}s into a column. After her best friend sets her match radius to the entire country, Natalie quickly connects with a hunky, outdoorsy East Coaster named Josh Lin, and decides to fly cross-country to spend Christmas with him. Upon arriving at his home, however, she learns she's been catfished and Josh (Creator/JimmyOYang) is really a nerdy BasementDweller. When she learns that the man she was attracted to, Tag Abbott (Creator/DarrenBarnet), lives in town, Natalie and Josh strike a deal: Josh will set her up with Tag if she pretends to be his girlfriend to his unsuspecting family -- father Bob (Creator/JamesSaito), stepmom Barb (Creator/RebeccaStaab), brother Owen (Creator/HarryShumJr), sister-in-law Chelsea (Creator/MikaelaHoover), and grandmother June (Creator/AltheaKaye) -- until Christmas.

* OpenMindedParent: Josh's [[EducationMama Asian dad]] Bob - he doesn't seem particularly concerned about Josh doing well in school and [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy just wants Josh to be happy,]] even if that means making candles for the rest of his life.

** Natalie's boss Lee also counts - he's spent the entire film annoying and/or being antagonistic to her, but he encourages her to be true to her feelings for Josh.

* JockDadNerdSon: Josh is the nerdy candlemaking Nerd Son to his outdoorsy father Bob's Jock Dad. [[spoiler:However, Bob is delighted at Josh's plans for a business and happily supports him.]]

** Natalie's boss Lee also counts, as he encourages her to be true to her feelings for Josh.