A Netflix romance about a fake marriage becomes a global streaming sensation despite critical panning.

Entertainment · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Purple Hearts, a 2022 romantic drama, follows a struggling musician and a Marine who enter a fraudulent marriage for military benefits. While critics panned the film for its script and tone, it dominated Netflix charts, accumulating hundreds of millions of viewing hours and sparking intense debate over its portrayal of military life.

Directed by Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum and based on a novel by Tess Wakefield, the film stars Sofia Carson as Cassie, a diabetic musician in California, and Nicholas Galitzine as Luke, a Marine burdened by debt. Their arrangement—a marriage of convenience to secure healthcare and military pay—quickly spirals into a complex emotional entanglement as they navigate deployment, injury, and the legal consequences of their ruse. The production, which utilized locations across California and Texas, required the assistance of Navy veteran James Dever to secure filming permissions at Camp Pendleton.

Upon its July 2022 release, the film faced harsh criticism. Reviewers on platforms like Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic described the script as stereotype-riddled and the emotional stakes as contrived. Critics specifically took issue with the film's treatment of serious themes and its generally positive depiction of the American military, with some segments of the audience and press finding the dialogue and character choices offensive. Despite these negative reviews, the film was a massive commercial success for Netflix, quickly climbing to the top of global charts.

The film's soundtrack, featuring original songs co-written and performed by Carson, became a central component of its marketing. Tracks like 'Come Back Home' helped drive engagement, and the film eventually ranked as the third most-watched movie on the platform for 2022. While the story concludes with the couple finding genuine love after Luke serves time in the brig for his role in the fraud, the creators have remained non-committal regarding a potential sequel, leaving the future of the franchise uncertain.

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