"Choose Love" Movie Review

Unfortunately, the Netflix romantic comedy film “Choose Love” just accidentally revolutionized the film industry.

Maybe that’s a tad impassioned – but the film, led by former “Austin and Ally” actress, Laura Marano, is whatever the viewer wants it to be.

“Choose Love” is an interactive rom-com with three potential love interests for Marano’s leading lady, Cami.

Cami begins the film with Paul (Scott Michael Foster), her sweet, albeit boring, boyfriend. Paul has a stable job and an adequate jawline, and Cami believes he will propose soon.

But as in any other rom-com, the safest choice is never the most interesting option.

A couple minutes into the film, a notice flashes across the screen telling the viewer to pick up their remote and make a decision for Cami while she talks to a psychic about her love life.

The first choice doesn’t have much of an impact on how the story will unfurl, but the rest of the decisions create different experiences for the audience.

One day while dropping her niece off at school, Cami runs into her high school sweetheart, Jack (Jordi Webber). She refers to him as “the one that got away,” since he left the country to become an activist after high school and Cami went to college at NYU.

Jack is a bit more interesting than Paul, and he asks Cami out to lunch after their quick conversation.

If the viewer chooses no, it’s the last time he appears for a while. If they choose yes, some flirtiness ensues that probably shouldn’t considering the fact that Cami is in a relationship with Paul at this point.

The final, and juiciest, suitor for Cami is the British rock star Rex Galier (Avan Jogia), who she meets at the recording studio she works at.

Cami’s lifelong dream has been to become a successful singer, but her stage fright prevents her from pursuing it.

Sounds eerily similar to Marano’s role on “Austin and Ally,” but that’s beside the point.

The wide social media consensus after the film’s release was to make the worst possible decisions for Cami, which undoubtedly means having her pursue a workplace romance with Rex.

Who wouldn’t want to see more of their childhood crush Avan Jogia, a.k.a. Beck from “Victorious.”

Rex encourages her to record a song with him, which is unfortunately absolutely awful.

But, surprise, the studio loves it and the audience gets the option to send Cami away with Rex to perform it live.

The moment of truth occurs when Cami has a dream about all three men, and the viewer has to pick which of them to continue with.

The sequence is laughably bad, with whimsical white covers cascading over each man’s face as Cami makes her decision.

There are six possible ways the film can progress and end, and the abrupt completions of each storyline encourage the viewer to go back and try another.

The hard fact is, “Choose Love” is so flat and uber-focused on the interactiveness of it all that there’s no desire to keep going after it “ends.”

Paul, Jack and Rex are all rom-com stock characters who only serve to further Cami’s juvenile arc, and don’t have compelling personalities of their own.

Marano repeatedly breaks the fourth wall before decisions have to be made, and it’s incredibly unsettling at times.

It would’ve been better if the viewer could make their choice without Marano’s doe eyes staring deep into their soul.

All that being said, the film accomplishes what it needs to – being the perfect goofy watch for a girls night in – and absolutely nothing more.

Rating: 2/5

Kaitlyn Murphy is a second-year majoring in digital and print journalism. To contact her, email kvm6255@psu.edu.