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Love Hard

Love Hard

Comedy · Romance · 2021

An LA girl, unlucky in love, falls for an East Coast guy on a dating app and decides to surprise him for Christmas, only to discover that she's been catfished. But the object of her affection actually lives in the same town, and the guy who duped her offers to set them up if she pretends to be his own girlfriend for the holidays.

Movie details

Love Hard

“A romantic comedy about the lies we tell for love.”

2021 Comedy · Romance 1h 45m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

6.9 / 10

Community rating

An LA girl, unlucky in love, falls for an East Coast guy on a dating app and decides to surprise him for Christmas, only to discover that she's been catfished. But the object of her affection actually lives in the same town, and the guy who duped her offers to set them up if she pretends to be his own girlfriend for the holidays.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Love Hard?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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EXmas

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Romance · 2023

When Graham decides to surprise his family by traveling home for Christmas, he is shocked to discover them already celebrating with an unexpected guest of honor, his ex-fiancée, Ali. The two exes battle it out to see who the family will pick to stay through Christmas Day and who must go.

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Thando is perpetually unlucky in love, but when her bestie returns from his travels with a fiancée in tow, she's forced to face a new emotion — jealousy.

Your Christmas or Mine 2

Your Christmas or Mine 2

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They've swapped Christmas – again. Can Hayley and James' relationship survive another turbulent family Christmas or has their future together gone off-piste?!

Holiday in Handcuffs

Holiday in Handcuffs

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Four Christmases and a Wedding

Four Christmases and a Wedding

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Hernán Jiménez

Written by

Daniel Mackey · Rebecca Ewing

Nina Dobrev

Nina Dobrev

Natalie Bauer

Jimmy O. Yang

Jimmy O. Yang

Josh Lin

Darren Barnet

Darren Barnet

Tag

James Saito

James Saito

Bob Lin

Rebecca Staab

Rebecca Staab

Barb Lin

Harry Shum Jr.

Harry Shum Jr.

Owen Lin

Mikaela Hoover

Mikaela Hoover

Chelsea Lin

Court is in session

Put Love Hard on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Sentimental Softie

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Cool Ironist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.