Upgraded is another film about a struggling young woman trying to make it in the world. This is a subgenre of rom-coms and that adds a nice aspect to the film. The struggling woman and the romantic angle combine very nicely to create a juxtaposition in the movie. That’s what makes these types of films fun most of the time. Sometimes they don’t work but this time it does work.

Ana Santos (Camila Mendes) is a twenty-something woman who works as an art assistant for a high-end arthouse in New York City, Irwin’s. She sleeps on her sister’s couch and has nothing going on in her life besides her job. Her boss Claire Dupree (Marisa Tomei) is a bit of a hardass and treats her badly. When an emergency comes up her boss asks her to come to London for work. While on the plane she meets a handsome young man named William (Archie Renaux). He introduces her to his mother Cathrine (Lena Olin) who has a rare collection of paintings she’s selling and she gets in over her head with a little lie. 

Like a lot of these types of movies, there are obstacles in her way of being successful. Two snooty interns Suzette (Rachel Matthews) and Renee (Fola Evans-Akingbola) try to sabotage her career but she can do that on her own. The story is a typical one with a few different trappings. The world of high-class art sellers and dealers has been done before but not like this. Throw in the romantic angle into the story and it’s not that bad of a film or story.

The cast is full of relatively newer actors with a few performances from seasoned vets like Marisa Tomei,  who won an Oscar for her role in My Cousin Vinny, Anthony Head, Ted Lasso, and Lena Olin, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, and Thomas Kretschmann, King Kong 2005. The younger actors like Renaux, Cathrine Called Birdy, Rachel Matthew, Happy Death Day and Mendez, Palm Springs are the best characters in the film. They have tremendous potential after their performances in this Rom-Com.

Amazon has been putting out a lot of these types of films on their streaming service lately. Along with all of the book-to-screen adaptations they have a nice mix of films and streaming shows. Red White and Royal Blue come to mind. If similar in a way except for the LGBT angle. These twenty-something rom-coms are for the late teen or college-age girl or guy who is a sucker for romance and love. There is an audience for these kinds of films. I’m a bit of a helpless romantic myself so this story hit me in the right place today in my life.

Director Carlson Young and writers Christine Leng and Luke Spencer Roberts create the right vibe for a certain demographic of society.  The public needs rom-coms and they serve a purpose. Couples and hopeless romantics will surely like this story. The driven female will surely gravitate to this story as well. I’m sure they can relate to the main character in the movie. I couldn’t but it didn’t mean I didn’t like the film at all, because I did. It’s a sweet film.

Upgraded takes a tired premise and puts a nice fun angle to it. The art world has been done before but it was a nice backdrop to this rom-com. The acting from the supporting characters was pretty good with Tomei channeling Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada but the younger actors were very good and I liked what they were doing. The direction and script were fine considering the premise has been done so many times before.

3 stars

Dan Skip Allen