“Purple Hearts” is a blooming romantic story newly released by Netflix where we see a couple pretending to be in love and end up falling for each other eventually. Two people with completely opposite ideologies finally reach their destiny, which brings them together. Luke and Cassie make up for their lack of money with a fake marriage, but the movie’s predictable and spoon-feeding storyline already convinces us that these two are bound to fall in love. There’s not much to shake your head about throughout the movie, so without further ado, let’s break it down.
Spoilers Ahead
What Led Them To Make A Fake Wedding?
Cassey is a struggling singer and songwriter who performs at a bar. One day, during her performance at the bar, she meets her longtime old friend Frankie, who had come there with his marine buddies. Here we see Frankie’s one of the closest friends. Luke meets Cassey for the first time. Later, Cassey is seen suffering from a health crisis, where she is diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. But her bigger crisis is the shortage of money. As Cassie runs out of insulin, she goes to the pharmacy to buy medicine. At that moment, we meet her mother, who comes to the pharmacy and gives her some money, but that does not help Cassie in any way.
Later, the conversations between Cassie and her mother show that Cassie is actually an independent-minded person who wants to live her life by her own rules as she grows up. The remarkable feature of her mentality is that she is very career-driven and wants to raise her head higher in the future through her music. So maybe she is willing to face any obstacle in life to become successful. On the other hand, in Luke’s life, we get to see him being a little disturbed. Johnno, an angry friend of Luke, meets him while jogging on the street. Here we see Johnno owes a lot of money to Luke, which Luke promises him to pay back as soon as possible. Meanwhile, Luke’s family’s past issues are also being dragged out, and we come to know that he doesn’t exactly have a good relationship with them. When Luke asks his brother for help with money, his brother turns him down.
Johnno is actually a drug dealer from whom Luke has borrowed some money, but his inability to repay Johnno keeps him worried. Although we see Luke as a good guy in the movie, his behavior is somewhat questionable. Luke is a generic angry young man from the marine army whose character traits are very familiar to the audience. But alongside Luke, we also see Cassey struggling with money, having to worry about her medication bills, as well as the house rent. Knowing there might be a shortcut to get out of this crisis, Cassey proposes a fake marriage to her friend Frankie, but Luke shows up and informs them of the consequences of this lie. Eventually, Frankie also refuses to accept the proposal because of having a lover in his life. But Luke needed money. So he pays some cash to Johnno, promises him to pay the rest, and leaves for Casey. Luke meets Casey and begins to plan a fake wedding so that they can get marriage insurance and extra money, which will make both of them less needy.
According to this plan, the two will arrange a private wedding. But Luke’s Marine friends throw a party. And when at that party, Cassey argues with one of his friends, Luke breaks away and talks to Cassia privately, but Casey hugs him and clears everyone’s suspicions. Casey and Luke unknowingly begin to approach each other, and we see them grow closer, which leads us to have no doubt what the end of the story is going to be.
‘Purple Hearts’ Ending Explained: Are They Going To Fall In Love For Real?
The next morning, when Luke sets off to prepare for battle, Cassie comes with him to see him off. Luke tells her to keep pretending to be his wife virtually, so they don’t get caught if the superiors check their phones. While Luke was working at base camp, we came to know that his father was an honored Army Marine who received the Purple Heart for his tireless service to his country. We see that somewhere in Luke’s mind, he wants to be an honest and loving man like his father, but as an obstacle, their fake marriage gets in the way. We then see Cassie improve physically, and she now spends most of her day with her music. Sometimes, on a video call with Luke, she plays some songs for the warring army from the other side of Luke’s video call.
But war interrupted their lives. Cassie gets the news that Luke is injured, so she takes the initiative to consult with his father and confesses their marriage. A hospitalized Luke shouts at Cassie, knowing about this, which makes him worry that his father will find out about their sham marriage. In this way, the hide and seek game continues in their lives, but in between, these two different people come closer to each other. But Johnno luckily reveals everything to Cassie’s mother, which exposes Luke and Cassie’s fake marriage. Upon investigation, an arrest warrant is issued against Luke.
While Luke is having trouble with Cassey about Johnno’s misdeed, an incident from Luke’s past comes to the fore, which was the main reason why he borrowed the money from Johnno. Luke says that after his mother passed away, he became a drug addict and stole a car from his father’s garage in search of money. He borrowed the money because he was afraid of his father going to jail for not owing the money to the customer. An angry Casey tells Luke to get out of her house.
Here’s a notable differential feature between their characters: Cassie’s dream of her future forces her to take refuge in this lie, while Luke is haunted by the darkness of his past.
When the couple appears in court the next morning, at Luke’s hearing, he blames it all on himself and says he forced Cassie to marry him. Casey breaks down in agony. Later, we see that, after giving a heart-touching performance, Cassie realizes her love for Luke, which makes her run to him when he is about to be sent to his 6-month prison term. Cassie and Luke hug each other and confess their true love for the first time. And the wheel of fate finally sends Luke to 6 months in prison and Cassie to a 6-month waiting period for her lover. But till the end, “Purple Hearts” does not let us down. After Luke’s 6 months of incarceration, we see Luke and Cassie living a happy and relaxed family life that makes both of them happy till the end.
Why Does ‘Purple Hearts’ Carry a Pleasing Vibe?
“Purple Hearts” is a very simple love story that gives the viewer a vibe of a very predictable ending from the first half of the movie. Yet the movie’s decent presentation, emotional breakdowns, accurate portrayal of the characters, and the aesthetics of the cinematography can attract the audience. If there’s one thing you should love the most about the movie, it has to be the songs in Sofia Carson’s (Cassey) pleasant voice, which adds sweetness to her existence along with her beautiful face and gives a more realistic approach to the character. All in all, “Purple Hearts” is a very sweet love story, which you can easily watch without thinking too much and without even trying to find any plot holes. This movie is indeed not a waste of time for die-hard fans of such romantic comedies.
“Purple Hearts” is a 2022 romantic drama film streaming on Netflix with subtitles.
