Purple Hearts Film Review
Read how Netflix’s latest hit romance portrays type 1 diabetes and captures the reality of living with this life-changing condition.
Fancy a film filled with romance and a type 1 diabetes angle?
This review will let you know whether it’s the kind of film you’re likely to enjoy or not.
In a nutshell, Netflix’s latest hit film, Purple Hearts, is just that, a romance with type 1 diabetes. And, for authenticity of diabetes, it does it well!
The story revolves around two central characters, Luke (Nicholas Galitzine) and Cassie (Sofia Carson), who start off with a clear dislike of each other and very differing outlooks on life. Their lives soon become joined quite literally when they agree to a marriage of convenience to suit their own personal circumstances. He has debts, which are only revealed to her later on, while she knows that she will benefit from access to medical cover for her diabetes.
The sting in the tail is that this ‘fake marriage’, where its purpose is to claim military benefits, is against US military law and both characters risk jail if found guilty of the offence.
Scenes are split between Luke’s life as a US marine and Cassie’s fledging music career as a singer/song-writer though there’s much more focus on her as the real protagonist.
The obvious romance blossoms as they get to know each other better through long-distance communications, but of course there are complications, and the path of true love doesn’t run entirely smoothly.
To avoid ruining your enjoyment, I’m not going to go into too much detail and instead have focussed on the diabetes aspect of the film. Suffice to say there is lots more to the story for you to enjoy.
The theme of Diabetes
It’s established early on that Cassie has type 1 diabetes and as the story develops, we see how she experiences the rollercoaster of diabetes management, as well as the highs and lows of life.
From hypos, hyperglycaemia, everyday management issues such as finger prick testing, alarms going off, injecting insulin and getting a pump fitted, the film explores many day-to-day experiences that will be familiar to those with type 1 diabetes. All of which are shown in realistic scenes with close-up shots of what’s occuring.
It’s good to see how these interruptions don’t prevent Cassie from following her dreams. A mantra followed by many type 1s!
Affordability
For Cassie, as a US citizen, insulin doesn’t come free and so the film serves to highlight the problem with the rising cost of this essential life source for those living with diabetes.
Just 6 months after diagnosis, we see that she has mounting debts and there’s a scene at the pharmacy showing how she can’t afford the high costs of insulin, having run out 4 days before her prescription will be renewed under her medical insurance.
She resorts to rationing her insulin, a potentially dangerous decision which as many of type 1s know could lead to hyperglycaemia and DKA (diabetes ketoacidosis).
The cost quoted by the pharmacist is $300 for long-acting insulin and $200 for short-acting insulin.
Sadly, this situation isn’t unusual in the US and despite the discoverer of insulin, Frederick Banting’s statement in 1922 that “Insulin does not belong to me, it belongs to the world” it is now the 6th most expensive liquid in the world and those most reliant on it in the US pay the most!
Key scenes showing diabetes
The film shows many diabetes activities and doesn’t shy away from showing the relationship between physical symptoms and behaviour. This can really help to raise awareness and understanding of the condition.
The film may be useful for those newly diagnosed to see and could help to see some of the daily activities as being a normal part of managing the condition. I certainly hope so.
It could also be a talking point for explaining the management and onus of the condition to carers and others.
Being authentic
I found Purple Heats to be very relatable as a person with diabetes and all the scenes showing management of various diabetes activities are well-directed with a feel of authenticity.
One reason for this was that it turned out that one of the actor’s playing a small role, Breana Raquel, has type 1 diabetes in real life and was able to give an input to the film’s portrayal of the condition.
At the audition stage, she hadn’t known that it was a key theme of the story, but when filming started, she was able to help Sofia Carson to understand the emotional aspects of dealing with diabetes.
Netflix also consulted with another person with type 1 diabetes in real-life and also a healthcare professional to ensure they showed diabetes in the right light!
The film didn’t seem to hold back on showing some of the perceived negative sides to diabetes either and this definitely made it more relatable for me.
Purple Hearts appears to go a lot further to show the reality of living with diabetes than Pixar’s recent animation, Turning Red. Despite including a character wearing an infusion set, I felt this film did very little to raise awareness of the condition. You can read why for me, Turning Red felt like a missed opportunity, here.
Soundtrack
The music aspect of Purple Hearts is fantastic! It plays a big part in the audience’s engagement with the romance as the lead is inspired to write many of the songs based on her developing relationship. Consequently, the soundtrack is proving a popular download on Spotify etc.
All the tracks are performed by the lead, Sofia Carson, who is signed to the record label Hollywood Music in real life. She co-wrote 4 of the tracks with Justin Tranter, a songwriter and collaborator with many artists including Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Ariana Grande, Britney Spears and Fall Out Boy.
Other themes
Purple Hearts has been criticised by some viewers as being propaganda for the military, however it actually based on a story of the same name published in 2017. It was the first adult novel written by Tess Wakefield, a copywriter from Minnesota in the US.
To me, it felt that the main focus was on Cassie’s life and so I didn’t form any view on the military focus. I just loved the way I could see diabetes management being shown as a part of a ‘normal’ life!
The Director took inspiration for the portrayal of Cassie came from an article published in 2019 in the New York Times, “We Either Buy Insulin or We Die” which is a real eye-opener for those who have little, or no idea of the issues faced by American citizens dealing with a diabetes diagnoses.
Overall
I really enjoyed the film and really liked the diabetes side to the story. It was easy to identify with the lead, Cassie and I think it does help to ‘normalise’ the condition by seeing diabetes portrayed in this way.
Despite the characters being fairly young and starting out in life, it does appeal to a wider audience in terms of age too and I would suggest is a good, easy-watch love story. I will definitely recommend this to others, whether with diabetes or not.
