Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Choose Love’ on Netflix, The Streamer’s First “Choose Your Own Romance” Interactive Movie

Romantic comedies usually end with a couple ending up together. In Netflix’s new interactive romance Choose Love, the question is, who will the audience pick for our heroine? Cami has three equally great guys in her life, and depending on how you answer a series of prompts throughout the film, you can have her spend different amounts of time with them so she can figure out where she wants her romantic life to go. If you look at it more as a game instead of a movie, you might be willing to overlook some of the flaws in the overall broadness of the story.

CHOOSE LOVE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Aerial shots of the Hollywood sign. The Capitol Records building. The Santa Monica Pier. We’re in L.A., baby. Cami (Laura Marano), our main character, sits in the home of her psychic explaining how wonderful her boyfriend Paul is, and how great – okay how okay – her job is, and yet, she says, something is missing.

The Gist: Cami Conway is a recording engineer. She’s in a seemingly perfect relationship with her boyfriend Paul (Scott Michael Foster) – they’re in an easy routine that’s been going strong for a few years now, and they know each other so well that they crush at Taboo (a hallmark of a solid relationship, in my opinion). By all accounts, he’s her soulmate. But the psychic from the first scene tells Cami that she’s about to have some choices thrown her way, and that happens in short order: In one day, Cami is reunited with her high school infatuation, Jack (Jordi Webber), who teaches at her niece’s school and also seems like a perfect guy. Once she gets to work that same day, sparks fly when she meets a charming rock star named Rex (Avan Jogia) at her recording studio.

While juggling multiple love interests and choosing the right one isn’t a novel idea for a rom-com, the gag here is that the audience gets to choose how the plot of the entire movie goes – not just who Cami ends up with, but there are interactive prompts to choose between throughout the film, from what Cami should say to her boss, to whether she should accept a lunch date from Jack, which guy you want to see her make out with in her dream. (If you don’t choose in time, the film will choose a default option for you.)

As the story unfolds, Cami, who is trying to figure out where her happiness lies, often breaks the fourth wall to wonder what’s about to happen or assure the audience she won’t blame us if we mess things up for her. And if you don’t like the way the story’s going, you can backtrack and undo your last choice. In some circumstances it’s fun, but the routine gets tedious at times when the choices have nothing to do with the plot. But, as the title suggests, by the time the movie ends, you will have no choice but to pick a suitor for Cami and, no matter which man it is, rest assure, you’re going to choose love.

What Will It Remind You Of? Netflix has experimented before with interactive content like Black Mirror’s Bandersnatch episode and loads of kids’ shows. Tonally, this is much more in line with sunny rom-coms about young, charming people trying to find love. It reminded me of Hindsight, Maggie, and Pushing Daisies which, coincidentally, all feature some kind of magical element to them (time travel, psychic powers, and a no-touching unless you want to die policy) – it’s not quite the same as audience interaction, but we are playing God here, so it’s not not the same.

Our Take: I wouldn’t be surprised if the casting sides for Cami said “an Alison Brie type” because that’s just what Laura Marano is, and she plays Cami as the ideal rom-com woman: almost put-together, funny but not snarky, sweet but silly, smart but not intimidatingly so. But then again, each of the men in her life is equally likeable and perfect in their own way: the steady boyfriend who is knows her like the back of his hand and he’s caring and safe, the rock star who’s complicated and challenges her…but who is also safe. The blast from the past who brings out the bleeding heart activist in her…So safe it hurts. The thing about each of these men is that there’s no wrong answer because they’re all essentially flawless on paper and each reflect a very specific side of Cami. No option will lead to anything but a happy ending.

Right down to the very literal title, Choose Love is a meta exercise in audience participation. It’s not choose-your-own-adventure and that’s that, it’s choose an adventure and then, if you feel like it, choose another one and see where that one goes, too. No matter how you choose though, just know that there’s no genuine drama in any of the options; this film is the equivalent of a Hallmark movie that’s devoid of any stakes. And I don’t mean that in a cruel way, I love a comforting, easy watch if that’s what the mood calls for, and that’s exactly what this is. As long as you don’t look for anything deep or resonant here, you’ll have fun with it.

Sex and Skin: In the version I watched, there’s just some light making out, and Rex does a very safe for work striptease to show off a tattoo on his hip.

Parting Shot: This is a tricky question for this one because no matter who Cami chooses in the end (and in theory, she can end up with any of them, there’s no trick where she’ll always end up with the same person no matter what you do), there’s always an option to go back to one of the previous pivotal scenes for a do-over so you can see how things play out with someone else.

Sleeper Star: While each of the characters is blandly likeable, I found myself gravitating to Rex, who is played by Avan Jogia, and choosing for Cami to spend more time with him on my first viewing, as he and his not-very-bad-boy persona felt the most interesting of all Cami’s options.

Most Pilot-y Line: “Jack?” Cami says at one point when she sees her old boyfriend at her niece Luisa’s school. “Who’s Jack?” Luisa asks. “The one that got away.” Okay, expositionally this works to explain Jack, but no one has truly ever said this phrase in actual conversation, right?

Our Call: SKIP IT. There’s nothing wrong with Choose Love other than the fact that it’s an interactive movie. It would be a much more successful film if it weren’t, because there’s a lot of potential with the characters, who are are very likeable and are completely restrained by the audience participation.

The trouble is that by making the story interactive, there’s much more thought paid to the user experience than the script. Interactive storytelling has been successful for kids cartoons, trivia shows, and for those HR harassment training course we all have to take every year. It’s just not the future of film making.