I actually didn’t sign up to watch this one, but my beloved found it on Netflix. She loves Christmas movies, and while it isn’t all about Christmas, I think it counts. I wasn’t expecting much, but did Netflix surprise me?

Natalie Bauer is the main character of the film. This Los Angeles lady has been a total dud on the online dating scene due to a terrible pool of eligible men. She finds a guy on the east coast who seems too good to be true. She decides to surprise him in person for Christmas.

Turns out, her almost boyfriend Josh Lin is a total fraud. She dumbly meets his family before realizing the horrible truth. She avoids making a scene, but she tells him privately how horrible of what he just did. He didn’t use any of his actual photos and pretended to be a much more attractive guy.

Turns out that the guy he stole photos of is a local friend named Tag, and Natalie sees him after she gets drunk in a bar. Josh saves her after she has an allergic reaction to kiwi in her drink. He makes her an offer, he’ll help her get Tag if she pretends to be his girlfriend so he’s not so much of a family embarrassment.

To be perfectly frank, Love Hard is actually surprisingly good. It’s not great but it’s charming and has lovable characters. You almost forget that Josh did something so awful that the concept shouldn’t be tolerated in actual reality by any decent human beings. It’ll probably be forgotten by most ten years from now, but I enjoyed it.

Score: B-