The children’s horror-fiction gamebook series, Give Yourself Goosebumps, lets viewers pick the scare of their choice. Netflix took a page from it to give us Bandersnatch (Black Mirror), its first interactive film, in 2018. Since then, it has employed the gimmick across many genres.
The latest offering is the romcom, Choose Love, which is essentially a collection of scenes that pushes the audience to find the right man for Cami, played by a charming Laura Morano.
When we first meet the protagonist, a recording engineer, she is in a steady relationship with Paul (Scott Michael Foster). He is merely hours away from his big proposal, when she meets her high-school boyfriend Jack (Jordi Webber), and then runs into celebrity musician Rex (Avan Jogia) later the same day. As flashbacks of young love and star-induced palpitations take over, Cami turns to her viewers to help her choose her Mr. Right. In fact, from that moment onwards, it is for us to decide how her entire life, not just romantic, moves forward. Whether it is going on a lunch date with Jack, quitting her job or following her dream of becoming a singer, we decide for her.
Believe it or not, but playing God can get tiring. After a point, the consequences of our actions become too obvious and the scenes fail to evoke the enormity of the choices. One is bound to go back and modify the decisions to find alternate outcomes. It is heartening to see her follow her dreams in certain storylines. But, the more interactive the film gets, the less connected viewers become with the characters.
Indecisiveness is different from insensitivity, and Cami often oscillates between the two while dealing with her three suitors. The audience is unable to empathise with her and that works against the film.
What does work though is the inclusion of the interactive moments when the characters break the fourth wall and talk about our choices. These are genuinely funny and even insightful at times. It is a neat little touch to humanise the film. It reminds us to take our jobs seriously because human emotions are at stake. That said, the onus of making us feel is on the creators, who in their quest to make it both a fun exercise and a compelling character-driven movie, managed to achieve neither.