by Jeff Alan, Contributing Writer
Amazon Prime starts February off with Upgraded, a rom-com from director Carlson Young. In her first major directorial outing, Young directs Riverdale’s Camila Mendes along with Marisa Tomei, Archie Renaux, Lena Olin, Anthony Head, Thomas Kretschmann, and a slew of other supporting actors with lesser roles. The filmstarts a bit more promisingly than most other rom-coms, but it ends up becoming just as formulaic as they all tend to be, as it follows nearly all the same beats.
The film opens with broke 20-something Ana Santos (Mendes) crashing on the couch of her sister and her fiancé. Ana works for a strict, no-nonsense art auction director in New York City named Claire (Tomei). One day, Ana notices a mistake which she is able to help correct and gets on the radar of her boss. The next day she is called by Claire directly — Ana is asked to accompany Claire and her assistants to London to oversee a private art auction. When she arrives at the airport, she is treated terribly by Claire’s other assistants in view of the airline front desk, and the employee behind the desk takes sympathy on her and upgrades her ticket to first class.
Elated, Ana takes advantage of her first-class privileges by indulging herself in the lounge and spa, and eventually making it onto the plane, where she meets William (Renaux), and they become smitten. However, when William asks her what she does, she lies and says she has Claire’s job. This leads to Ana keeping the lie going as she meets William’s mother, Catherine (Olin), and her friend, Julian (Head), while also trying to keep her boss happy and working hard for her new position.
Honestly, there’s not much to this movie. If you’ve seen any rom-com from the mid to late 2000’s, then you’ve seen this. Girl gets a shot, girl lies, girl tries to balance two worlds. It’s your classic formula. The story is about as generic as it gets, with very few surprises along the way. While I say these things, though, it doesn’t necessarily mean the movie is bad; it just means it’s been done before.
Mendes does a perfectly fine job in her role, and I always enjoy seeing her in things that aren’t Riverdale. There is really no one else notable in the rest of the cast besides Tomei, and while she does a fine job, she doesn’t do anything extraordinary. I was not expecting to see, but ended up getting excited for, comedians Andrew Schultz and Matteo Lane, both of whom I follow and enjoy the work of — it was nice to see them, even for as small as their roles are.
I did like the cinematography at some points of the film. London is shot in a very romanticized way similar to how other filmmakers shoot New York. Other aspects of the film I liked were the music and the soundtrack. Rom-coms have always had a good track record of picking good music, and this film continues that trend.
All in all, while Upgraded does have small glimmers of good things, it’s your typical rom-com cocktail of a girl who tells one white lies that spirals into her trying to cover her tracks when the good things that happen could have all been avoided by telling the truth, which any sane person would have done. But then again, there would be no movie without this tiny little conflict.
Rating: Didn’t Like It
Upgraded is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video
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