Movie Review: PURPLE HEARTS...

Earlier today, I watched the romance drama Purple Hearts on Netflix.

I might be a bit biased (since I worked as an extra on this production when it filmed at the Hollywood Bowl last year), but I thought that Purple Hearts was a great film!

There was controversy (specifically on Twitter) about Purple Hearts' story when this movie was released online over a month ago, but I found nothing wrong with the messaging.

Purple Hearts' plot is about an aspiring singer (Cassie, played by Sofia Carson)—dealing with diabetes—who's unable to secure a refill on her insulin because her health insurance won't cover the cost of her medication. Living in Oceanside, she meets a Marine (Luke, portrayed by Nicholas Galitzine) who has financial problems of his own that could be rectified if he was married and had access to special benefits provided by the United States military.

Realizing that both of their financial predicaments can be solved by tying the knot, Cassie and Luke discuss how their marriage (and would-be divorce) will be handled before they're off to their private wedding.

The problem is, a soldier getting married just so they can receive extra money from the U.S. military amounted to insurance fraud...which was punishable through court-martial and imprisonment.

Folks on Twitter complained about Purple Hearts' message because they didn't like how Cassie and Luke only married to get financial benefits from the American government.

However, if they watched the whole film (spoilers ahead), then they'd see that the insurance fraud was eventually exposed...and Luke ended up getting court-martialed and sent to jail at the end of the movie.

Purple Hearts went to great lengths to show that Cassie and Luke slowly started to fall for each other after an awkward start to their relationship. Cassie took care of Luke after he returned to San Diego to recover from a combat-related injury suffered in Iraq, Luke made sure that Cassie was okay after she returned home to their apartment feeling dizzy from her diabetic condition, Cassie got Luke a support dog named Peaches to help him in his recovery, Luke took full responsibility for the insurance fraud when he found out that Cassie might be prosecuted by the state of California after his military hearing was over, and Cassie drove all the way from the Hollywood Bowl to Camp Pendleton to declare her love for Luke before he was shipped off to jail.

(We'll overlook the fact that it seemed like Cassie arrived at Camp Pendleton in less than an hour...when it's a 112-mile drive, at maximum, between the Hollywood Bowl and this military base in San Diego County.)

So bottom line is, I thought the story of Purple Hearts was great.

Also, if the U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) found the messaging of Purple Hearts to be objectionable, then it wouldn't have given the production crew access to Camp Pendleton and military hardware for this movie. Not only that, but the USMC probably wouldn't have provided that honor guard during the funeral scene at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery—which is also where Iceman's funeral in Top Gun: Maverick was filmed. That is all.