Upgraded follows the light and breezy romcom tradition. It stars Camila Mendes and Archie Renaux. He’s a rich Englishman. She’s a poverty stricken assistant in an American art auction house. She gets upgraded to first class on a plane to London and sits next to the Englishman in question. By the end of the flight, he thinks she’s the youngest ever Director of the Auction House and she does nothing to dispel the lie.
Upgraded would have had no plot if Ana’s (Camila Mendes) expectation that she would never see William (Archie Renaux) after the transatlantic flight had happened. But, of course, she did see him and her story eventually backfired on her.
Ana worked for Claire (Marisa Tomei). Claire was the real Director at the top. She had two terrible mean girl assistants Suzette (Rachel Matthews) and Renee (Fola Evans-Akingbola). When Claire needed a third assistant in London and picked Ana for the job, Suzette and Renee made sure she had the worst seats, the worst hotel, and the worst office space in London. Ana managed to shine anyway.
Ana’s best friend back in New York City was Amy (a delightful Saoirse-Monica Jackson). Ana lived in her sister’s tiny apartment on a futon. Her sister’s husband couldn’t wait to get her out of there.
Back to the big lie. As soon as she was off the plane, she was saying goodbye to William and his mother arrived to pick him up. Catherine (Lena Olin) was a star. She took to Ana right away and insisted she come to her “small party” that evening. The party turned out to be huge.
Ana met an artist whose work she knew. Julian (an oh, so flamboyant Anthony Head) loved that she knew his work. Soon Ana, Catherine, William and Julian were in the library with some original art worth millions of dollars. After gushing about the art at length, Ana realized this was the collection Claire and her auction house were trying to obtain to sell in a very hush hush deal. That was a huge complication.
The next huge complication was Ana and William falling for each other. So here we are – a house built on lies with millions of dollars at stake and true love happening kiss by kiss.
In a romcom, the complications always derail the romance, but not forever. The job under Claire and the sale of the valuable art collection were a whole other matter. Even though you may predict how the romance will go, the rest of it is not so obvious.
Upgraded is on Prime Video. It was directed by Carlson Young (a woman). It’s a bit of enjoyable fluff, good for a night when you need that kind of therapy. It reminded me a bit of the plot of Love at First Sight but it didn’t have the magic element that one had.