The popular “enemies to lovers” trope has become increasingly prevalent in regular media. This trope has increased in popularity because of the interesting dynamic it can create between characters. Done well, this trope can add a certain kind of intrigue and vibrancy to a story. Done poorly, you get Purple Hearts.
Purple Hearts—adapted from a book of the same title by Tess Wakefield—is a movie tackling the issue of loving someone with different political beliefs than your own. By itself, the idea that love conquers all, and that people should look past their differences, is not new and can even be necessary at times. What Purple Hearts does wrong is that the “differences” the two main lover interests must look past are not as minor as you would expect in a typical romance movie. Instead, the “differences” are disputing beliefs regarding basic human rights.
The movie follows main characters Cassandra “Cassie” Salazar—a waitress with dreams of becoming a musician—and Luke Morrow—a marine with a troubling past—as their “red” and “blue” hearts come to together to form a, wait for it, purple heart.
Cassie is a deeply sympathetic character because she is the embodiment of what so many people must live and struggle through. Cassie was raised by her single mother, a working-class Hispanic immigrant. Living on her own, Cassie works multiple jobs just to be able to support herself, but even that is not enough as shown by her continuous struggle with her health insurance’s ability to pay for her life-dependent insulin medication. Aside from this, Cassie appears to be involved in more left-leaning politics, she even has a Black Lives Matter and rainbow pride flag hanging outside her house. Cassie is also incredibly forthright and quick to voice her opinions, especially regarding things she feels deeply about.
Luke on the other hand is less than empathetic. He comes from a marine family, but has grown apart from his father, the patriarch of the family, and has enlisted in the army in order to get “back on track” from a drug addiction. Whereas Cassie is more “blue”, Luke supports more right-leaning, “red” politics and ideals. He associates with people who are sexist and racist, all while defending and justifying their actions.
The plot goes like this: Cassie cannot afford to pay for her insulin, which she needs in order to stay alive, and Luke needs money to pay back a drug dealer he is indebted to. In order for the both of them to get what they need, the two agree to fake a marriage so that Luke, and his legal wife, get the extra money and insurance benefits provided by the military. If this movie were purely a drama, the plot would not be so bad, but since it is a romance, the two characters must fall in love with each other; this is where the problems lie.
Purple Hearts, at its core, is a self-indulgent story that has no regard for the reality of the misfortunes it deploys for the purpose of adding to an already lackluster plot. Handled well, a movie that tackles prominent, and often life altering, topics can bring forth meaningful conversation and even change. Purple Hearts unfortunately does not do that. In contrast, for the “enemies” in Purple Hearts to become “lovers”, they must first put aside their differences. Their differences being their beliefs surrounding basic human rights. That is what Cassie must do. She must set aside her “wokeness” and empathy in order to be more palatable for her love interest. Essentially, Cassie must completely disregard her ideology—to restate, Cassie is against racism, believes in basic human rights, better health care, and equity for minorities—for Luke.
Where Cassie was once this outspoken “activist” she suddenly becomes uncharacteristically pro-military and goes along with whatever Luke and his friends say. There is no accountability and there is no real acknowledgment of the problematic behaviors and beliefs that some of the characters hold.
The movie is even more frustrating when there is little to no development for Luke’s character. While Cassie had to get stripped of her morals and her entire belief system in order for the romance to work, all Luke had to do was love Cassie despite her want for social justice.
Purple Hearts fails because it trivializes real-world problems and treats them like any other trope needed to construct a romance. Unfortunately, when you want to employ something so prevalent to a large population—specifically, minorities—as a gag to further the romance between two one-dimensional characters, it is hard to separate reality from fiction. Watching real struggles being used as a plot device not only ruins the viewing experience of the movie, but it lacks taste, self-awareness, and overall empathy for fellow human beings.
Now, problematic issues aside, censorship is not something that should be encouraged. If you decide to watch Purple Hearts for yourself, please keep in mind how harmful some of the plotlines, characters, dialogues, and themes may be. You should always be allowed to form your own opinions, just remember to be mindful, reflective, and empathetic when listening to the voices that have the most authority to speak up about a topic.
