Netflix’s Summer Movie

Cassie and Luke, for economic convenience, agree to contract a loveless marriage, convinced that an authentic feeling can never be born between them. However, fate has an unexpected future in store for them.

Purple Hearts: the plot

Cassie is the 20-year-old daughter of a South American immigrant to which it was recently diagnosed with diabetes. She works as a waitress in a club that also allows her to perform, with his music band The Loyal (aspires to be a professional singer-songwriter), but struggles to raise the money for medical treatment.

Luke is descended from a dynasty of career military but for the stern father it turned out to be a disappointment: ha a past as a drug addict and a huge amount of debt. He has joined the military in an attempt to regain his parent’s esteem, repay the loan, and is about to leave for a mission to Iraq.

Cassie and Luke agree to marry and favor the economic concessions offered to couples in the armyalthough they hate: she despises men in uniformhe the pacifist feminists.

A nonconformist love story

The “purple heart” of the title is the medal of valor that distinguished soldiers receive in combat. In the plural, it describes the two protagonists, from much bloodier personality and passionate about the average of rom-com heroes. Both marked by a traumatic past and from a suffocating present that does not seem to leave them a way out, they struggle not to succumb to a fate that seems to leave no way out: she risks dying for lack of appropriate care, he risks having loved ones killed by creditors.

With a predominantly female staff – the director, the producer and the screenwriter are women – Purple Hearts it is far from being part of the thick line of sugary romantic comedies. With a riotous and brawling protagonist who does not hesitate to insult those who do not approve of her outspoken pacifism, it’s more of a coming of age novel than a rebel who learns to tolerate who thinks differently than the love story of two characters.

Him and her

In the role of Cassie we find the 29 year old Sofia CarsonAmerican actress, singer and dancer launched by the teen series Descendants by Disney +. In Purple Hearts his singing qualities are given ample space: the dream of breaking into the music sector sees his character try his hand at creating songs with an autobiographical slant destined to conquer ever wider audiences and make the film (also) a musical film.

The role of Luke it is instead entrusted to British Nicholas Galitzine, he is also a singer as well as an actor (but in the film he does not have the opportunity to show off this talent) seen in rom-com about classical dance New York Academy. Together they trigger a unique alchemy that works both when they collide and when they feel attracted to each other.

Purple Hearts no of the critics, yes of the public

Purple Hearts has been panned by critics, labeled as yet another summer short film destined to get lost in Netflix’s algorithm without a trace. The public, on the other hand, liked it, so much so that it stood out in the Top Ten of the streaming platform establishing itself as one of the hits of the summer. Although the interpretations of the two protagonists and the direction are mediocre, Purple Hearts has more than one merit: first of all it distances itself, as mentioned, from format of the most obvious love stories by staging two protagonists full of defects, warlike and sometimes almost unpleasant that offer a more realistic approachopenly opportunistic, to the mechanisms of love.

Also and above all, he does not skimp on openly criticizing the US administration. From the criticism of the exploitation of immigrants (they pay taxes but cannot vote) to that of the army (young people enlist forced by poverty and destitution) through the health system that does not even provide life-saving drugs to patients, Purple Hearts it offers a portrait of America that is anything but edifying.

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