Love Hard is the first Netflix Christmas movie I watched this year. Let’s jump right into the review to see how it holds up against the Hallmark juggernaut.

Natalie (Nina Dobrev) has terrible luck in love. She has been able to turn her awful dates into an online column. When her friend, Kerry (Heather McMahan), opens Natalie’s dating app to look for men all over the country, Natalie matches with Tag (Darren Barnet). Unfortunately, Tag lives on the other side of the country. Throwing caution to the wind, Natalie flies across the country to surprise her new beau for Christmas. But all is not what it seems

I haven’t watched Nina Dobrev in anything since The Vampire Diaries in the early 2000s. I can’t say that I was a big fan of her acting there but she seems to do OK here. Maybe it’s because she doesn’t have to do as much emoting. If she’s not angry, she’s flirty. It’s not a big stretch.

Instead, my favorite character was Josh, played by Jimmy O. Yang. He had this adorable nerdy air around him that worked well. He was able to pull off the self-hatred that comes when you don’t belong with the popular group and no one sees you romantically. I think the only other person that pulled off their character perfectly was Althea Kaye as Josh’s grandmother.

Once again, this is a decent movie that is fine for an evening watch but it’s nothing amazing. On the contrary, Tag is very annoying and Natalie is heading into annoying territory too. The best way to watch Love Hard is a relaxing evening where you want something on the TV in the background while you play your favorite game on your cell phone. I’m not sure the movie deserves much more attention than that.