Prime Video’s Upgraded, starring a delightful Camila Mendes and an Archie Renaux who pulls off both suave and interesting, feels like a return to the times when the rom-com reigned supreme. It’s fun, it’s entertaining, it’s just the right side of absurd and of course, it ends just like a rom-com should. Basically, it’s like the streamer that recently brought us the also delightful Red, White and Royal Blue has done its homework and done it well.
But Upgraded is anything but serviceable. The good rom-coms only feel simple because they seamlessly capture the spirit of the genre, and Mendes’ charm and the setup are enough to make this movie soar – even if, at times, it feels like its strengths lie not in the actual romance, but someplace else.
Indeed, Upgraded shines when it leans into Ana’s character examination, or when it goes hard into the workplace comedy aspects – Fola Evans-Akingbola and Rachel Matthews are so delightful as Ana’s foes, so to speak, that at times, it’s easy to get caught up in their dynamics.
However, that only lasts until Archie Renaux shows up once again, and then, William is all we can see. Renaux shines with with a character who allows him to be straight-up romantic almost from the get-go, and there’s a quiet confidence about the way he carries the character that feels effortless and believable.
Some rom-com couples sizzle so much you truly trust they’d tear each other’s clothes off and then have a hard time picturing them staying together after. Ana and William, meanwhile, feel built to last. That’s why it hurts so much fun when it feels like they don’t. But that’s the twist. Every good rom-com has it. How this one solves it is why you watch. I would never dare ruin it.
The cherry on top of the brilliant casting sundae are Lena Olin, Anthony Head, and Marissa Tomei, all playing somewhat stereotypical characters who are nonetheless a great deal of fun, in no small part because these three great actors seem to have decided the characters will be fun, period.
You don’t have to take a movie like Upgraded very seriously, and at the same time, to make it as fun as it ends up being, you have to take it super seriously. It’s a very fine line that everyone involved seems to understand well. Rom-coms are serious business, because they end up meaning a lot to people, but they are not so serious business, because, in the end, they are about making people have fun, laugh, and fall a little bit in love – with a story, with each other and with life.
If you don’t love, well …what’s the point of life?
Personally, I’d rather not find out. I’ll take about ten more movies like this one, please.
Upgraded will be available globally on Prime Video on February 9th.