Netflix Life

Protagonist Cami Conway and one of her love interests, Rex Galier

Do not watch Choose Love.

Recently, in attempts to stay relevant, Netflix has been attempting to make its content more interesting for viewers through entertainment additions such as interactive films.

Having seen previews for their interactive content upon scrolling previously, I was not surprised when I came across a rom-com where I, as the viewer, got to decide the fate of the characters.

As someone who generally dislikes the majority of Netflix original movies, I was not instantly drawn to what appeared to be yet another subpar film about an obnoxious protagonist faced with a complicated life challenge which becomes even more complex once she meets an airbrushed male model love interest. However, the draw of being able to choose what happens to our female lead somewhat interested me, so I decided to watch the film despite my foreshadowing thoughts telling me that I would be wasting the next hour and a half of my life.

Choose Love centers around a “quirky” and relatively awkward millennial named Cami Conway, played by Laura Marano, who finds herself having to choose between three equally undesirable male love interests. The first man, her long-term boyfriend Paul Swartz, portrayed by Scott Michael Foster, is kind and cares for her, but she doesn’t appear to have any real interest in him. The second, Jack Menna, played by Jordi Webber, is, as Cami states, “the one who got away,” and her former high school sweetheart. Lastly, she finds herself face to face with a world-famous pop star—an extremely realistic scenario—named Rex Galier, played by former Victorious actor, Avan Jogia. 

To me, every character in the film felt extremely two-dimensional. None had any redeemable qualities or did anything that made me care who Cami ended up with one way or another. Even their looks appeared fake; each of the love interests looked like a basic stock image of a man in his mid-20s. Their outfits, which could have possibly redeemed their dull looks, were boring and typical Netflix rom-com movie costumes. 

Concerning Cami, the costume designer for this movie failed. In almost every scene of the movie, Cami is seen wearing the exact same magenta, corduroy, fitted jacket. If not in the previous, she is styled in outfits that consist of a fitted, pleated miniskirt, a belt, and an unattractive sweater or blouse decorated with a cutout, reminiscent of the mid-2010s, on it.

Deeper than merely the stylistic choices of Cami, I did not like her. The entire plot of Choose Love rests upon the fact that she is cheating on her long-term boyfriend with her high school sweetheart, who she obviously never got over, and an untalented pop star with badly bleached hair. She appeared to have no conscience or regrets for cheating on poor Paul, who appeared to care deeply about her. 

Because of the fact that the viewer has a say in what happens, Cami would frequently break the fourth wall, to make sure that the viewers were aware of her dilemmas, speaking to the audience about whatever was crossing her mind at that particular moment. This was awkward to watch and unneeded, for the viewer would have been quite able to make the necessary choices without having to listen to Cami’s inner monologue. 

Choose Love did allow for a sizable amount of choices to be made throughout the film. While I cannot say how different each path you could have chosen is from the others, for I only watched the movie once, I believe that the film did allow for a substantial amount of flexibility for the storyline’s conclusion. There were enough decision moments to keep the viewer relatively intrigued, even though, personally, I could have cared less about what she did with her unamusing life. 

The best element of the movie, and the arguably only respectable element of Choose Love, was the flawless transitions upon selecting a choice for the story. When the time came to make a choice, two options were displayed at the bottom of the screen for the viewer to choose from. The movie continued to play while the viewers chose, and there was no pause between your selection and the rest of the film; the movie continues on as it would have if there had been no options at all. 

In my version of the movie, I chose Cami to end her journey in the company of Rex. Why? I have no particular reason. At the moment, he seemed like the least unappealing of the three options. 

Even though my version of the story ends with Cami and Rex living happily ever after, the film gave me no closure as to what happened between her and her two other proposed love interests, which I find to be extremely unrealistic. I would not recommend this movie to anyone, even if you think that the aspect of choice is interesting. I wasted an hour and a half of my life viewing the boring life of Cami who has no favorable qualities, similar to all of the other characters highlighted in the storyline. Do not let the illusion of choice fool you, with Choose Love, any choice you choose is the wrong one.