Netflix users have taken issue with the platform's latest original movie after its protagonist seemingly abandons her beliefs for a right-wing military man.
Purple Hearts has amassed nearly 102.6 million viewing hours since it was released worldwide on August 1. The film, directed by Elizabeth Allen Rosenbaum, follows Cassie (Sophia Carson) as she grapples with financial issues in America.
"In spite of their many differences, Cassie (Sofia Carson), a struggling singer-songwriter, and Luke (Nicholas Galitzine), a troubled marine, agree to marry solely for military benefits," the plot reads. "But when tragedy strikes, the line between real and pretend begins to blur."
One fan dubbed the film "military propaganda", while many others said it resembled a "horror movie."
On Twitter, one user scathed: "Purple Hearts is for the girlies with racist boyfriends."
"The plot of purple hearts is literally the american healthcare system is so bad that I have to marry a stranger who commits war crimes for the state so I won't die," another said.
A third added: "Purple Hearts is not a romance it is a horror film because I literally cannot think of anything more terrifying than having to marry a military dude to afford my insulin."
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The film has received so much criticism online that Carson, 29, and Allen Rosenbaum have been forced to respond.
"I hope that people understand that in order for characters to grow, they need to be flawed in the beginning," the director told Variety, though arguably, this is what fans have taken issue with. "They are flawed at the beginning and that was intentional. In order for the red heart and the blue heart to kind of turn purple, you have to have them be kind of extreme."
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The film has been applauded for its representation of people with diabetes, which was aided by the director's work with medical professionals.
"The more that we learned about diabetes, the more that we wanted to really represent what it means to be a Type 1 Diabetic in 2022 in the United States, as accurately and as vulnerably as possible," Carson said. "Working with Laura, meeting with doctors and doing my research about what they face every single day to literally survive — to sacrifice everything they have to get the insulin they need to wake up the next day — is devastatingly unfair."
