Netflix's 2022 musical romance movie Purple Hearts tells the story of two people who first pair together out of convenience before legitimately falling in love, which is a beloved trope as seen in a number of movies like Purple Hearts. In the film, aspiring singer Cassie Salazar (Sofia Carson) meets U.S. Marine Luke Morrow (Nicholas Galitzine), and the pair decide to wed when they realize a military marriage would provide much-needed security and money for them both in their individual pursuits. As so often happens, the pair ends up actually falling in love after fighting their true feelings for most of the movie.
Purple Hearts was not critically acclaimed upon release and only has a 35% on Rotten Tomatoes. However, there are moments to praise in the movie, including Carson’s exceptional singing ability — the soundtrack even reached Billboard’s Top 200 list. No matter the reviews, a growing, real romance blossoming out of a fake relationship is always an enjoyable watch, and Purple Hearts is one of Netflix's most-watched movies of all time. There are a number of movies like Purple Hearts that explore marriages of convenience, arranged weddings, and the profound ramifications that transpire when two opposites follow their heart.
13 Single All The Way (2021)
- Stream on Netflix
Single All the Way follows Peter (Michael Urie), a social media strategist who asks his friend and roommate Nick (Philemon Chambers) to come to his family’s home on Christmas so they will stop bothering him about his single status. Arranged dates, misunderstandings, and a burgeoning real romance between Peter and Nick result in this LGBTQ+ romantic comedy. Single All the Way is a movie like Purple Hearts in that both members of the relationships are equally unattracted to each other from the very start. It isn’t until they spend some time apart that they realize how much they miss each other and want something real.
12 Candy Jar (2018)
- Stream on Netflix
Much like Purple Hearts, Candy Jar involves a pair of young people who at first seem mismatched for each other. While Lona Skinner (Sami Gayle) and Bennett Russell (Jacob Latimore) are not considering marriage, the state of their high school romance starts similarly to Cassie and Luke’s. Lona and Bennett are highly competitive and ambitious members of the high school debate team and neither likes when the other gets a leg up. Much like the Purple Hearts couple, they both have differences of opinion on major issues: the war in Purple Hearts and what college to go to in Candy Jar, which is a major conversation for young people.
11 West Side Story (2021)
- Stream on Disney Plus
West Side Story may not right away seem like a movie like Purple Hearts but the star-crossed lovers angle as well as the musical aspects actually put the films in close company. Directed by Steven Spielberg, West Side Story is the second film adaptation of the famous Broadway play about Maria and Tony, two youths from differing backgrounds who fall in love despite the lasting enmity of those they grew up with. Those who liked the music of Purple Hearts and how it often felt Luke and Cassie’s friends were keeping them apart as much as their own feelings will appreciate a similar sentiment in West Side Story.
10 An Officer And A Gentleman (1982)
- Stream on Paramount Plus
Taylor Hackford's An Officer and a Gentleman beautifully toes the line between rousing romance and tear-jerking melodrama. Richard Gere plays Zack Mayo, a U.S. Naval officer in training who must decide if his career is more important than his first true love and potential bride-to-be, Paula Pokrifki (Debra Winger). The film is a salient exploration of matters of the heart as they specifically relate to career, family, and military order. A movie like Purple Hearts, An Officer and a Gentleman also considers how military relationships require a certain commitment and trust, and also explores how distance can make the heart grow fonder.
9 Green Card (1990)
- Rent on Amazon Video
In Purple Hearts, Cassie agrees to marry Luke, so she can enjoy his U.S. health benefits as a Marine and treat her diabetes. In Peter Weir's Green Card, Frenchman Georges Fauré (Gérard Depardieu) desperately wants to remain in the United States and agrees to enter into a marriage of convenience with the American Brontë Parrish (Andie MacDowell). In both instances, the couples slowly realize they were right for each other all along. Those who enjoyed the chemistry between Cassie and Luke will also like the romantic rapport between Depardieu and MacDowell and the cute culture clashes that the two help each other navigate.
8 The Piano (1992)
- Stream on Paramount Plus
Fans of movies like Purple Hearts who appreciate how Cassie’s budding musical career plays a role in the plot will also appreciate Jane Campion's incredible movie, The Piano. The story follows Ada McGrath (Holly Hunter), a woman with mutism whose father sells her into marriage to an explorer in New Zealand, where she takes her young daughter and prized piano. While tonally much more grave, the use of musical expression to help Ada cope with her arranged marriage and find her voice is similar to how Cassie uses music to deal with her similar situation in Purple Hearts.
7 The Wedding Banquet (1993)
- Stream on Hoopla and Tubi
One of Ang Lee's best ]movies, the underrated The Wedding Banquet tracks the phony marriage between gay man Wai-Tung Gao (Winston Chao) and straight woman Wei-Wei (May Chin) in order to appease Wai-Tung’s traditionally-minded parents. Heartfelt hilarity and pathos ensue when Wai-Tung's parents attend the couple's phony wedding ceremony and eventually catch on to the ruse. Those who like the comedic and odd-couple moments of Purple Hearts will like this movie for having double the relationship problems when Wai-Tung’s boyfriend gets involved. The way Lee shifts from the comedic conceit to a deeply felt and dramatic glimpse into the intimate cultural differences is what elevates the material.
6 Muriel's Wedding (1994)
- Stream on fuboTV and Paramount Plus
P.J. Hogan's Muriel's Wedding is a delightful and well-esteemed Australian film and a movie like Purple Hearts that centers on Muriel Heslop (Toni Collette), a bored and awkward young woman who wants nothing more than to get married. As such, she steals money from her parents, runs away to a tropical island, and engages in a wild scheme to marry an Olympic swimmer. For those who prefer Cassie’s story over Luke’s in Purple Hearts, Muriel’s Wedding is more focused on the bride-to-be. Also, notably, while Muriel’s Wedding is not a musical, ABBA plays an important role in the film and provides the backbone of the soundtrack.
5 Monsoon Wedding (2001)
- Rent on Apple TV and Amazon Video
Mira Nair's Monsoon Wedding is a joyously uplifting tale of arranged marriage, making it a must-see for those who enjoy the cultural coalescence between Cassie and Luke in Purple Hearts. The story finds Aditi Verma (Vasundhara Das) set to marry Indian groom Hermant Rai (Parvin Dabas), who must travel to India from Texas where he lives to meet his bride-to-be and attend the ultra-lavish ceremony. A beautiful, bubbly, and transcendent Bollywood affirmation of the human spirit, Monsoon Wedding is a rousing celebration of romantic human connections found in places least expected. Like Purple Hearts, Monsoon Wedding proves that not all arranged marriages are doomed to fail.
4 The Proposal (2009)
- Stream on fuboTV
The Proposal is a memorable 2000s rom-com thanks to the crackling chemistry between leads Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds. The plot concerns Margaret Tate (Bullock), a corporate executive who blackmails and bribes her assistant Andrew Paxton (Reynolds) to marry her so she can retain her legal status in the U.S. and avoid deportation back to Canada. This is a movie like Purple Hearts, and the fake marriage inevitably leads to genuine feelings between the couple, though The Proposal leans heavily into the comedy.
3 Lorna's Silence (2008)
- Rent on Apple TV and Amazon Video
Lorna's Silence is a movie like Purple Hearts, but it trades a more uplifting tone for a darker, achingly memorable arthouse story. The highly-acclaimed drama concerns Lorna (Arta Dobroshi), an Albanian immigrant in Belgium who navigates multiple fake marriages so she can be with her true lover, Sokol (Alban Ukaj), and open their dream snack bar together. A gritty and unflinchingly realistic look at the desperate measures one woman takes to escape her dire situation and forge a better life, Lorna's Silence is both a deeply touching love story and a thought-stirring morality play about what it takes to find happiness in spite of, not because of, marriages of convenience.
2 Dear John (2010)
- Stream on Netflix
Purple Hearts exudes a tone and temperament similar to a Nicholas Sparks novel. Those looking for a movie like Purple Hearts should see Dear John, another classic romantic drama that follows a U.S. soldier on leave for the summer, John Tyree (Channing Tatum), and Savannah Lynn Curtis (Amanda Seyfried), a teenager with a complicated family. Aside from the basic conceit that is very similar to Purple Hearts, it's director Lasse Halström's sentimental mastery that will keep viewers invested in the conclusion of Dear John's lovelorn characters. Moreover, both movies hinge on a mysterious third-act plot twist that forces everyone to reassess the entire story.
1 The Big Sick (2017)
- Stream on Prime Video
Written with trenchant insight by real-life married couple Emily V. Gordon and Kumail Nanjiani, The Big Sick is a tender movie about lovers dealing with their feelings and cultural expectations. Nanjiani plays a version of himself who must decide between dating Emily Gardner (Zoe Kazan) or following his parents’ wishes and going through an arranged marriage. It’s a poignant story about how following one's heart does not necessarily equate with happiness. Once again the monetary and insurance benefits of marriage in America are central to the movie’s conceit in The Big Sick. It’s a movie like Purple Hearts in how it credibly reinforces how true love knows no barriers.