Love Hard is the first Christmas movie of the season to hit our Netflix accounts, being released November 5, 2021. And boy, is it glorious. It’s never too early to get in the Christmas spirit, right? Read our spoiler-free review below.

What’s It about? 

Love Hard takes strong vibes from the long-time Christmas movie hit, Love Actually. (In fact, the name is a play on Love Actually as well as Die Hard … arguably a Christmas movie for some). These are two Christmas movies that pop up in discussion throughout the film. Which one is the better Christmas movie? 

Love Hard stars Nina Dobrev as Natalie Bauer, a columnist whose specialty is going on exceptionally terrible Tinder dates and writing about them. Our female protagonist embodies the millennial dating struggle: too busy working to meet anyone organically, therefore resulting to online dating, at which point you never know what you’re getting, or if he or she is the real deal. In fact, catfishing is a bigger problem than you might think.

What is catfishing? It’s advertising yourself online to be someone you’re not. Natalie is a little sick of going on all these dates. She just wants to meet someone nice and, of course, cute. She connects with a dreamily handsome young man named Tag. Believe it or not, the two are a match made in heaven. They can talk for hours about anything and they just … click.

For Christmas, Natalie decides to surprise him by traveling all the way from California to New York so they can finally meet in person. But she’s the one that ends up being surprised. She’s been catfished. The guy she thought she was talking to is actually an extremely socially awkward guy named Josh. 

But … Tag is real. In fact, he used to be Josh’s childhood friend. Natalie cuts a deal with Josh to help her get with Tag since Josh lied to her. She owes him that much. As lies build on lies, Natalie must learn the difference between looks and personality, and if she thinks everyone has been lying to her, or if she’s been lying to herself. 

Watch It or Not? 

As far as Christmas movies go, this one will definitely get you in the spirit. If you’re a millennial, you’ll vibe with this movie even more as the characters and their modern day dating experience is so relatable. 

If you’re a Love Actually fan, you’ll love the references in this movie, paying homage to one of the more iconic scenes. 

Overall, I would personally give this movie a 9 out of 10. I need something a little less corny and slightly more realistic to get the full 10. But I was so pleasantly surprised by the non-traditional ending, I couldn’t help but root.