X

Join or Sign In

Sign in to customize your TV listings

Continue with Facebook Continue with email

By joining TV Guide, you agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy.

Purple Violets

In New York City, thirty-three year old Patti Petalson is unhappy with her life. Her passion is literature, she having published one book of short stories ten years ago, but not having written anything since. Instead to earn a living, she sells real estate, a job and for a boss she hates. And although unspoken, she hates her husband, self-absorbed restaurateur Chazz Coleman, who doesn't listen to her and does whatever he wants regardless of her. While out for dinner, Patti and her BFF, schoolteacher Kate Scott, run into Brian Callahan and Michael Murphy, who were once Patti and Kate's respective boyfriends, the four who used to do everything together while they were in college, with both relationships ending twelve years ago as they were graduating. Kate has never forgiven self-described lowbrow Murph, now a successful lawyer despite his lack of academic smarts, for what she believed was a sexual indiscretion, while Murph outwardly just wants the opportunity to apologize. However, there is an unspoken attraction still between Patti and Brian. Brian is also somewhat unhappy with his current life. He is a successful writer of a series of what he considers "pulp fiction" detective novels, but has just written his first serious novel - one he doesn't admit to anyone is semi-autobiographical in that its lead character is a man trying to rise to greatness out of mediocrity - which is being panned by the critics, with his fans refusing to read it. He is dating twenty-five year old record company executive Bernadette, the two of them who live in separate generations and as such don't really understand each other. As Patti, Brian, Kate and Murph reconnect, the questions become whether there is a second life for them as couples, and specifically for Patti and Brian if their reconnection can elevate them into being the writers they truly want to be.

Loading. Please wait...

Content not available in your region? ExpressVPN can help you stay connected wherever you are. Get 4 extra months FREE with TV Guide's exclusive offer.

Cast & Crew See All

Annette Arnold
Annette - Bookstore Fan
Max Baker
Mark - Nature Writer
Selma Blair
Patti Petalson

Awards

  • 2007 - Best Feature - - winner

You May Also Like See All

Sweet Smell of Success
Notorious
The Leopard
Celine and Julie Go Boating

Popular Movies See all movies

History of the World: Part I

1 hr 32 mins
Mel Brooks brings his one-of-a-kind comic touch to the history of mankind covering events from the Old Testament to the French Revolution in a series of episodic comedy vignettes.
47   Metascore
1981 Comedy, Documentary, Music

Yoh! Bestie

1 hr 35 mins
Thando is perpetually unlucky in love, but when her bestie returns from his travels with a fiancée in tow, she's forced to face a new emotion — jealousy.
2026 Comedy, Drama

Groundhog Day

1 hr 41 mins
A weather man is reluctantly sent to cover a story about a weather forecasting "rat" (as he calls it). This is his fourth year on the story, and he makes no effort to hide his frustration. On awaking the 'following' day, he discovers that it's Groundhog Day again, and again, and again. First he uses this to his advantage, then comes the realisation that he is doomed to spend the rest of eternity in the same place, seeing the same people do the same thing every day.
72   Metascore
1993 Comedy, Drama, Fantasy

The Wrecking Crew

2 hr 4 mins
Estranged half-brothers Jonny and James reunite after their father's mysterious death. As they search for the truth, buried secrets reveal a conspiracy threatening to tear their family apart.
67   Metascore
2026 Action & Adventure, Comedy, Suspense

Solo Mio

1 hr 36 mins
After being left at the altar in Rome, a man decides to go on his honeymoon alone.
48   Metascore
2026 Comedy, Drama

Popcorn Porn: Watching 'Zack and Miri Make a Porno'

1 hr 14 mins
This film follows the making of Kevin Smith's latest film, Zack and Miri Make A Porno.
2009 Documentary, Comedy