Opposites attract in Netflix's upcoming young adult romance film Purple Hearts. The streamer unveiled a first look at the movie starring The Descendants lead Sofia Carson and Cinderella star Nicholas Galitzine as an aspiring musician and a Marine who fall for one another in spite of their wildly different personalities. With the photo comes a brief glimpse of the two leads together ahead of the film's release on July 29.
Purple Hearts is adapted from the novel by Tess Wakefield, which centers on Cassie (Carson) and Luke (Galitzine). After struggling to make ends meet as a musician and employee at a bar in Austin and drowning in medical bills from her diabetes diagnosis, Cassie approaches her friend in the military about a marriage of convenience to keep herself afloat. When that friend refuses, his acquaintance Luke steps in to help out, even though he and Cassie are wildly different people. He has reasons of his own for getting married as well, so the two try to keep up appearances as a family despite their differences in order to share that bigger paycheck. Along the way though, the two begin falling for each other, in spite of all of their gripes with one another and the circumstances.
There's little to go off of from the photos provided, but it is a sweet look at the couple we'll be following throughout the film, and we can infer some details of the plot. Luke is dressed in military garb and the pair look to be outside a military base, giving each other hug presumably before Luke goes on duty. Given the premise of the book the film is based on though, it's entirely possible the two are merely doing this to keep up appearances, but the look they give each other hints that they've already caught feelings for each other.
Kyle Jarrow and Liz Garcia adapted the film with Carson as a co-writer. As a real life musician, Carson performed on the soundtrack of the film and even executive produced alongside the film's director Allen Rosenbaum, Amy Baer, and Hugo Grumbar and Tim Haslam for Embankment. Producers for the film are Leslie Morgenstein and Elysa Dutton for Alloy Entertainment
Collider talked with Carson last year about the film and her many roles in its production, and she gave nothing but praise to the story she was helping bring to life:
What drew me to the story the most was the message. When I first read the title, I asked Liz if Purple Hearts meant it was the blending of a red and a blue heart, and she giggled and she said, “I hadn’t thought of it that way, but that’s exactly what our story is.” We live in a country that’s so incredibly divided right now, red versus blue. This story is about choosing not to see color and choosing love, above all things, and how a red heart and a blue heart can come together and choose love. That can change the world in the most beautiful way. And I came on as a writer, as well, for the music. I was able to write with someone that, I’m not sure if I can say who it is quite yet, but my co-writer on this project is one of the greatest writers of our generation and I’m so grateful to work with him. We really poured our hearts into bringing Cassie’s music to life. It’s just been the most challenging role of my life and the most rewarding one, so far, as well.
Purple Hearts premiers on Netflix on July 29.