Film / Love Hard

Natalie: But more importantly, you're a good guy, Josh.
Josh: Well, I don't know how to show that in a photo.

Love Hard is a holiday Romantic Comedy directed by Hernán Jiménez for Netflix. It was released on November 5, 2021.

Natalie Bauer (Nina Dobrev) is an unlucky-in-love writer based in Los Angeles who turns her Dating Service Disasters 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 surprise him by flying cross-country to stay at his house for Christmas. Upon arriving at his home, however, she learns she's been catfished and Josh (Jimmy O. Yang) is really a nerdy Basement-Dweller. When she learns that Tag Abbott (Darren Barnet), the real guy whose profile photos Josh used, 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 (James Saito), stepmom Barb (Rebecca Staab), brother Owen (Harry Shum Jr.), sister-in-law Chelsea (Mikaela Hoover), and grandmother June (Althea Kaye)—until Christmas.

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Tropes in this film:

• 420, Blaze It: The Lin household is at 420 Holt Street. Natalie's Uber/Lyft driver recognizes the street address immediately because he smoked a lot of stuff in the basement with their son Josh. He even hands her a joint to pass onto him.
• The Ace: Owen seems to have everything going for him: confidence, success, good looks, and an attractive wife. Tag as well: according to Josh, he was the Big Man on Campus in high school and Natalie soon finds that dating someone as energetic and outdoorsy as him is too hard to keep up with.
• An Aesop: Be true to yourself. Presenting falsehoods about your appearance or personality will not end well once the truth inevitably comes out, but if you have faith in your personal strengths, there will always be someone who likes you for who you are.
• Allegedly Dateless: Natalie is a very attractive, confident and intelligent woman who somehow just can't find a good person to date, to the point where her entire column centers around it.
• Anti-Christmas Song: Natalie and Josh sing their own version of "Baby It's Cold Outside" with more consenting tones. Ironically this only highlights that the song is more about the women's flimsy justifications for her behavior than the man's actual advances.
• Attention Whore: Josh's brother Owen can't stand not being the center of attention and undermines Josh and Natalie's duet with a pregnancy announcement. He resents Natalie because she's stealing some of the limelight from him and his wife Chelsea.
• Authentication by Newspaper: 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.
• Bathtub Scene: Natalie takes a bubble bath as she speaks to Josh on the phone. She's completely covered by bubbles the entire time.
• Big Brother Instinct: Despite Owen's jerkish and Attention Whore tendencies, he's furious when he thinks that Natalie was cheating on and using Josh.
• Big Man on Campus: According to Josh, Tag was this type in high school: prom king, class president, and football star.
• Brick Joke: A two-fer with The Stinger: When Natalie narrates about her disastrous attempts at online dating at the start of the film, she mentions someone showing her a "dick pic" as one of the many bad things she dealt with at the time. Later on, June mentions wanting to try online dating herself when she learns about how Natalie and Josh first met. Midway through the credits, Josh and Natalie learn that June has indeed set up an online dating profile, and are understandably discomfited when she asks them what a dick pic is.
• Butterface: When Natalie does sexy karaoke at the local bar, the men react with interest while her back is to them, but this turns to shock and embarrassment when she turns around to reveal a red, puffy face (the result of being allergic to the kiwi in some shots she took prior).
• Catfishing: Josh used photos of his attractive childhood friend Tag to talk to women on a dating app. He forms a genuine connection with Natalie while still pretending to look like Tag, and she is horrified when she arrives and finds out what he really looks like. In the end Tag comments that pretending to be an athletic and outdoorsy woman so she could date him isn't all that different from physical catfishing.
• Changing Yourself for Love: 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 Henry David Thoreau), which gets to the point that she goes to his family's steakhouse despite being vegetarian. She eventually 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 dumps her after pointing out the hypocrisy.
• Christmas Carolers: The Lins go caroling every Christmas performing Christmas Songs. Owen and Chelsea have entire choreographies.
• Dating Service Disaster: Exploited. Natalie gets several bad dates while on dating apps, and has turned these into her day job: she writes about them for a Shallow News Site Satire named Soash Media.
• Distinction Without a Difference: Natalie's response to Josh describing the type of women Tag likes:
  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.
• Double Entendre: After finding out she's been catfished, Natalie storms off with a baby Jesus decoration. She leaves it outside the karaoke bar she goes to, where Josh finds it (and her).
  Josh: Oh Jesus.
• Easily Forgiven: Josh's family happily re-accepts Natalie after she apologizes to Josh with a Grand Romantic Gesture. Even Owen.
• Epic Fail: Josh's dating profile before Natalie gives him some pointers. He seemingly goes out of his way to look like a Serial Killer by holding various weapon-like tools in an attempt to look more manly.
• "Fawlty Towers" Plot: Josh didn't make the fake profile as a mean prank, but was curious how things would turn out if his image was better. He never expected his long distance relationship with Natalie to go as far as it did, and certainly didn't expect her to surprise him in a cross-country trip. Several more complications get in the way, and they are now juggling a fake engagement with her trying to make a relationship with Tag on the side.
• Formerly Fat: Both Natalie and Josh are mentioned as having been chubby as kids and teens. While both have since gotten a lot trimmer and more fit, they are both implied to still be a bit insecure about it, particularly Josh since his brother makes a point of mentioning it a lot.
• "Friends" Rent Control: Natalie has a nice apartment in LA despite being a columnist.
• Gallows Humor: Invoked by the residents of the local nursing home when Josh and Natalie "coach" them on online dating.
  Elderly Man: What if I spruce it up just a little bit...instead of "has Parkinson's", I go with "always on the move?"
• Give Geeks a Chance: Natalie has been swiping right on hunks the entire film but eventually realizes she's genuinely in love with the nerdy Josh.
• Good Stepmother: Barbara, Josh's stepmother who he is very close to and has been like his sole maternal figure.
• The Grinch: A mild example, Tag doesn't celebrate Christmas because he hates the consumerism surrounding it.
• Heel Realization: Natalie gets a dressing down from her boss that all of the horrible app dates she has had was partially because her own expectations were so superficial no one could live up to it, even if they were flawed she was unwilling to give anyone the benefit of the doubt.
• Innocently Insensitive: While they 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.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
  • Josh's brother Owen is an Attention Whore along with his wife and has Big Brother Bully tendencies towards Josh, such as when he teases him for being Formerly Fat and unlucky in love. 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.
  • 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.
• Jock Dad, Nerd Son: Josh is the nerdy candlemaking Nerd Son to his outdoorsy father Bob's Jock Dad. However, Bob is delighted at Josh's plans for a business and happily supports him.
• Karaoke Bonding Scene: Natalie intends to seduce Tag through sexy karaoke. While he's initially appreciative of her song choice and body, he's shocked when she turns around and her face is swollen due to an allergic reaction.
• Love Epiphany: Natalie has one in her hotel room when she writes her column about Josh and Tag. Right when she is done, Josh uploads a new dating profile with his own pictures and looking through it, she realizes she likes him.
• Love Confession: Natalie confesses her feelings for Josh with a Grand Romantic Gesture out of his favorite Christmas movie.
• MacGuffin: Tag could be considered one, as he is somewhat of a Flat Character and mostly exists to get Natalie to realize her actual love for Josh. It's also worth nothing that he disappears once his purpose has been served and isn't mentioned by any of the characters again.
• Missing Mom: Natalie's mom died a year prior to the film, and her father is never seen. Josh's biological mother is also never seen, as he states that his parents divorced when he was three during one call, and refers to Barb as his stepmother.
• Most Writers Are Writers: Natalie is a columnist for a Shallow News Site Satire, a job that gives her leeway to fly across the country for an online crush, because she can write about it.
• New Job as the Plot Demands: Played for Laughs with Eric the unhelpful airport employee, who also doubles (triples?) as the local Uber and Lyft driver.
• "Not So Different" Remark: One theme of the movie is the double standards about misrepresenting yourself at the beginning of a relationship. Being less than honest 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. 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.
• Old People are Nonsexual: 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.
• One-Hour Work Week: To be fair, most of them probably have some time off for Christmas.
  • We see Natalie in her office only twice. Her chief also mentions her column isn't weekly, and, to her dismay, she doesn't write anything else.
  • Josh also only works once, and spends this time teaching Natalie how to climb a wall. But in this case it's justified, as he works for his father's store, it's Christmastime, and his family wants him to engage with Natalie.
• Open Heart Dentistry: After a bad allergic reaction, Josh brings Natalie to the local vet because the hospital is half an hour away.
• Open-Minded Parent: Josh's Asian dad Bob—he doesn't seem particularly concerned about Josh doing well in school or life and just wants Josh to be happy, even if that means making candles for the rest of his life.
• Plot Allergy: Natalie emphasizes multiple times that she's deathly allergic to kiwi. So of course, when she steals someone's drink at a bar, it has kiwi in it and she has a bad allergic reaction.
• Precision F-Strike: Natalie and Josh debate over which is the best Christmas movie, Josh likes the traditional Love Actually while Natalie likes Die Hard. Natalie reenacts the cue card scene from Love Actually as an apology and love confession to Josh, and Josh's response was to write "Yippee Ki Yay Motherfucker" on the back of the last card.
• Real Men Eat Meat: Natalie is a vegetarian, while Josh and his family are respectful of her lifestyle Josh warns her that Tag is an avid meat eater who even invites her to a steakhouse for their first date. She believes she can handle it, but the wide variety of ribs unnerves her and also learns that Tag killed several of the animals mounted in the restaurant.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Tag gives one to Natalie when he calls out her hypocrisy for being mad at Josh for catfishing, while she was doing the same thing to him.
• Relatively Flimsy Excuse: Josh passes Natalie off as his step-cousin to Tag.
• Romantic Fake–Real Turn: Natalie and Josh pretend to be engaged, only to end up falling in love.
• Romantic False Lead: Natalie is dead set on hooking up with Tag, even if it becomes increasingly clear that they're not very compatible. Finally, she realizes her feelings for Josh and they end the film with The Big Damn Kiss.
• Shallow News Site Satire: Natalie writes for a social media company named "Soash Media". What we see of it is in a trendy building and her boss, Lee, works out while talking to her. Lee describes the website as a reminder of what life could be (either better, or so much worse).
• Shout-Out:
  • The title comes from Love Actually and Die Hard, which Natalie and Josh continuously debate as "the best Christmas movie". Natalie's Grand Romantic Gesture mimics Mark's cue card confession to Juliet, and Josh responds with "Yippie ki-yay".
  • Tag's favorite book is Walden.
  • Josh and Natalie duet a modified version of "Baby It's Cold Outside".
• Sibling Yin-Yang: Confident jerk Owen and introverted nice guy Josh are brothers.
• Stealth Insult: Natalie is full of these, particularly when making fun of Josh's job, insulting Owen, and disparaging Henry David Thoreau.
  Natalie: Well, some people find him [Thoreau] to be a self-obsessed narcissist, fanatical about self-control, not to mention a total hypcorite... but personally, I find him so inspiring!
• Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Josh, who gets ragged on for being nerdy and not conventionally attractive, intends to exploit this. Because Natalie is traditionally beautiful, he asks her to pretend to be his girlfriend to make him look better to his family.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Tag leaves heartbroken after giving Natalie a dress down, and we never see him again.
• When She Smiles: Gender inverted with Josh, Natalie openly notices that Josh has "super straight white teeth" and needs to show them off more.
• Writer's Block Montage: During the denouement Natalie gets a montage of her room at the Lake Placid Lodge trying to finish her article.

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