Ariana Mehmeti, Staff Writer
Upgraded is a recent rom-com released on Amazon Prime. It stars Camila Mendes as Ana, Archie Renaux as William, and everyone’s favorite Aunt May, Marisa Tomei as Claire Dupont.
This movie follows Ana, a poor young woman who has a love for art and a dream of running a gallery. The movie starts when she is interning for Claire DuPont, the head director at Erwins Auctioning Gallery in New York. Then by correcting a mistake that one of her co-worker’s made, Claire DePont personally asks Ana to be her third assistant and to accompany her and her two other assistants to the United Kingdom. The two assistants hate Ana, constantly undermining her and bullying her, to the point where they booked her a separate flight in economy. The ticket agent notices the disrespect that Ana is receiving from her co-workers and decides to bump her up to first class, having access to the first-class lounge. She then bumps into a man, William, spilling her drink all over him. Then, when she is on the plane she realizes she is sitting next to the man she spilled her drink on. They are both instantly attracted to one another and start to talk, and that is where the real plot begins. When William asked Ana what she did for a living, she was embarrassed to say that she was an assistant. So, she told the gorgeous British man that she was the head director of Erwin’s New York office, essentially impersonating her boss Claire.
I did not see any reviews, any trailers, or read any synopsis about this film before watching it (like I do with most movies). All I knew was that it was a rom-com and I am a sucker for rom-coms.
First, Camila Mendes deserves more romantic comedy roles because she did amazing as this character. Honestly, she is a great actress and this role proved that. I also would like to say that Marisa Tomei did a great job playing Claire DuPont but I felt the writers tried so hard to make her almost like Meryl Sreep’s character in The Devil Wears Prada, Miranda Priestley. But also, I feel like writers always try to recreate that type of female ruthless boss character but don’t do it justice like The Devil Wears Prada. I digress as this is not a comparison article, it’s a review.
I did enjoy this movie, and I thought all the characters were pretty likable, (except for the assistants and Claire at times but that was the whole point of her character). I enjoyed William’s mom, Catherine, and the diabolical genius she is in this movie. Her character was iconic.
The plot of the movie was questionable. I am not a fan of movies where the relationship starts in a lie, because I don’t think it’s realistic and it ruins the movie for me sometimes. However, I did not mind it too much because Ana was upfront and honest and said that she did it all because she was very insecure and felt as if she needed to lie.
A scene in the movie I loved is the montage of the two love interests getting to know one another and a sequence of all their dates. I thought it was cute. The only part of the movie I would want to critique is the ending. Usually, rom-coms’ endings are either make it or break it for me, and this one was a break it. I felt as if the ending was a bit rushed and the fact that Ana got fired from her job and got re-hired an hour later was a bit cringe for me. I just thought if they put more effort into the ending this movie would’ve had a higher rating in my book.
But, all in all, it’s not a terrible movie. It was fun to watch and fantasize about being in London. My rating: is 7.5/10.
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