- Title: Upgraded
- IMDb: link
Upgraded is one of those films that makes you pity those involved in the production who will have to wear the stain of being a part of the film on the career resume like a scarlet letter until the end of time. The braindead romcom (apparently unaware its stealing random characters directly from Cinderella) offers almost no examples of a normally-functioning human being on-screen. If this is what it feels like to be upgraded, leave me in coach.
Camila Mendes stars as Ana, a low-ranking assistant to an unreasonable caricature of a boss (Marisa Tomei) and her mean girl cackling assistants (Fola Evans-Akingbola and Rachel Matthews). After catching an error that saves the company face, Ana is brought on-board for a London trip and taken pity on by a ticket agent who witnesses how shabbily she is treated by her co-workers. Upgraded to first class, Ana has a meet-cute (or this movie’s version of one) with a wealthy, if bland, London businessman (Archie Renaux) who she is then later seated to on the plane.
The rest of the movie features mostly minor inconveniences blown out of proportion as Ana works to make the business trip work, makes friends with her new beau’s family impressing them with her art knowledge, and tries to not let her exaggeration of her role within the company effect her burgeoning romance with Prince Charming (and that’s if you make it past the excruciating opening focused on Ana’s life in New York at the office and home with her spineless sister and bitchy brother-in-law).
Upgraded features some talented actors mostly wasting their, and our, time. It’s a Hallmark or Lifetime TV-movie following every cliche of romcom scriptwriting from beginning to end leaving no surprises at how the story will end while failing to provide enough laughs or thrills for us to forgive the limitations of its genre.
Watch the trailer
