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!Contains Spoilers!
Prime video released a hot new romcom–“Upgraded.” It’s a classic story about a working class girl who falls in love with a rich and charming man.
“Upgraded” stars Camila Mendes and Archie Renaux, who play Ana and Will respectively. The film quickly rose to Prime’s top ten list for the US upon its release, becoming popular amongst audiences.
Unfortunately, this film did not meet many of my expectations for a romcom. I found the comedy aspect rather lacking, something that is important to me when seeking a good romcom.
Most of the comedy comes from the side characters, who end up more entertaining to watch than the main characters themselves.
While I enjoyed both actors’ performances and feel they played their parts well, I couldn’t get past how the characters were written. As the film progressed, it felt more and more difficult to root for the two to get together in the end.
A romcom usually aims to make the audience feel like they want to support the characters and see them learn from their mistakes, but I didn’t feel a lot of that here.
Ana comes across less like an ambitious hard-worker and more like someone who wants everything solved for her.
I believe her character could have been formulated better; I found myself struggling to sympathize with her at times.
I can see what the idea was for her character, but the execution felt poor.
This is only heightened by the lack of a strong conflict. To me, the conflict moves far too quickly and is resolved with an ease that left me feeling disappointed.
I cannot sympathize with Ana because everything is solved for her. She creates a major lie and never apologizes until she is caught, and even then she faces no real consequences for it.
She keeps her job, gets the position she wanted, and gets the man in the end.
Some of the most infamous scenes from romcoms come out of the conflict, when the leads are groveling or when everything starts to unravel. There’s a sense of really working for redemption and recognizing faults.
“Upgraded” lacks a feeling of sincerity, which is the film’s greatest downfall.
Will, Ana’s love interest, makes this glaringly apparent. I wanted to love him, but I couldn’t really see the appeal of his character.
The film tries to make him come across as this suave, witty, rich guy who’s also genuine and humble. It is this idea of, ‘he’s not like other rich guys, he’s different.’
Despite trying so hard to make him seem humble and down to earth, it almost has an opposite effect.
He seems more lacking self-awareness of his privilege and position in life.
If this was a serious romance and not a romcom, that would be an interesting choice. Instead, it makes him feel a bit dull.
I cannot feel pity when he first becomes mad at Ana as his reaction is a prime example of this ignorance. His reaction fails to take into consideration how what his mother did affected Ana.
Though, I didn’t feel that much pity for Ana either. I found myself partly agreeing with Will; Ana’s relationship with him did feel transactional.
Which is another point that made me disappointed with this film, their relationship was not convincing to me at all. I could not see the chemistry between the characters, nor how they fell in love.
To me, it comes across as a relationship that would burn out as quickly as it had started.
I will say, the film was not all bad. There was chemistry between the characters in the initial meeting in the airplane. There is much potential between them.
If the main leads were more appealing as individuals, I think the film and their relationship would have been a lot more entertaining.
It’s definitely not oscar-worthy, but if you’re looking for something to watch and wind down with on a weekend, it’s perfect for that.
The film has its silly moments and plenty of entertaining characters that make it a fun watch,
I really enjoyed the dynamic between the leads and side characters, the scenes between them are what really made me want to finish the movie.
A few stand-out characters to me are Ana’s brother-in-law, Will’s mother Catherine, and the mean assistants, Renee and Suzette.
These characters added a charm to “Upgraded” and really gave it some life. I wish the leads could have had as much personality and quirkiness as the side characters, they’re incredibly entertaining to watch.
The cast themselves are all quite talented people, majority having impressive discographies. It’s notable when you watch the film. Most of what I enjoyed about it is how the actors performed.
If this movie had another script, I think it’d definitely have the potential to be even more popular than it already is.
All in all, “Upgraded” isn’t the most amazing film ever, but it’s great for younger audiences and people looking for something simple to watch.
If you want an idealistic, easygoing movie, “Upgraded” does this well.
I’d rate it a six out of ten, I don’t regret watching but I probably wouldn’t watch it again.
Upgraded is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
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