The genre of romance has been in a need for a revamp for a while.
A refreshing one would be a contemporary take on the classic meet-cute narrative, and the latest rom-com on Prime Video, Upgraded, almost has the viewers with the title, but fails to live up to it. It doesn’t bring anything new to the table, and is comfortable resting on clichés.
Like most romantic comedies, the lead pair—Ana (Camila Mendes) and William (Archie Renaux)—here too meets by chance—on a flight from New York to London. Ana is lucky enough to have been upgraded from an economy to a business class ticket. We have been told that she lives in a one-room apartment with her sister and her fiancé, desperately seeking to move out.
The central problem with the film is how the ostensible love story fails to evoke any emotion. There is, of course, the predictability of the plot to blame. There’s also a constant search for conflict to take the story forward. That works against it. And, when the conflicts do arise, they seem forced, failing to create a coherent narrative. Ana has been rendered a purpose to drive the story, but she is the only one. William gets sidelined without explanation. There is little inventiveness when it comes to the rest of the characters as well. For example, the two assistants of Anna’s boss, Claire (played by Marisa Tomei), feel like replicas of characters we have seen in countless other stories. They exist solely to make the lead’s life more difficult.
Upgraded’s saving grace is how it manages to touch upon the politics of camaraderie among women. It highlights how success has its own meaning when women achieve it in a man’s world. This subtlety could have worked wonders for the film had it not been presented in a formulaic way. The story’s fulcrum is Ana’s love for her profession, and yet, it is more inclined towards making her fall in love with a man. Shouldn’t love find its own way? Or may be the makers thought that would be a cliché.
Upgraded
Director: Carlson Young
Genre: Romantic comedy
Platform: Amazon Prime
Language: English
Rating: 2.5/5