Movie Review: Camila Mendes is “Upgraded” on this “Devil Curates Picasso” rom-com

“Upgraded” is an almost-frothy rom-com built on a “Devil Wears Prada” framework.

A plucky intern at an auction house deals with a tyrannical boss and a new love on a trip to London where she tries to make it in a pretentious world of prestige art sales.

It’s a star vehicle for Miss “Plucky,” played by Camila Mendes (“Riverdale”). So of course Oscar winner Marisa Tomei and Oscar nominee Lena Olin steal it from her.

Fun turns by Anythony Head as a tipsy British painter and Andrew Schultz as a grumpy/mouthy New York brother-in-law and some properly bitchy “mean girl” colleagues (Fola Evans-Akingbola and Rachel Matthews) and snappy banter are among its recommendations.

“Thank you for doing the bare minumum that this job requires.” “A degree in art history is actually very useful!”

“What happened to your manners, ‘Downton Abbey?'” “More of a ‘Bridgerton’ man, myself.”

Ana (Mendes) is a Tampa native struggling to get through an internship with a top art auction house in New York when luck and initiative earn her a big break — a London trip and chance to be “third assistant” to the “sociopathic perfectionist” Claire (Tomei), who slings a Euro-bourgeois accent even though, rumor has it, she’s “from Minnetonka, Minnesota.”

Events conspire to earn lowly Ana an “upgrade” to first class, and that’s how she bumps into (literally) posh Will (Archie Renaux of “The Other Zoey” and “Best Beer Run Ever”).

That’s how she meets his “rapidly aging” model/actress mom (Olin), falls in with artist Julius (Head) and generally entangles herself in a big “hush hush” auction of modernist masterworks.

The character’s struggles are mild, with little if any of that “Prada” edge. Mendes is a pleasant and pretty leading lady who looks ten years younger than she is, with just enough chemistry with Renaux to achieve “bare minimum the job requires” status.

And while actress turned director Carlson Young keeps the trains and planes running (slowly) on time, she doesn’t give us a single scene that pops, or production design that ever comes across as upscale, only little flashes of wit and fun from the veterans in the cast, who are better than the material.

She’s managed a slick and shiny wish-fulfillment fantasy that is strictly downmarket — Hallmark movie chic.

Rating: R, alcohol abuse, profanity

Cast: Camila Mendes, Archie Renaux, Lena Olin, Anthony Head, Rachel Matthews, Fola Evans-Akingbola, Aimee Carrero, Andrew Schultz, Thomas Kretschmann and Marisa Tomei

Credits: Directed by Carlson Young, scripted by Christine Lenig, Justin Matthews and Luke Spencer Roberts. An Amazon Prime release.

Running time: 1:45

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About Roger Moore

Movie Critic, formerly with McClatchy-Tribune News Service, Orlando Sentinel, published in Spin Magazine, The World and now published here, Orlando Magazine, Autoweek Magazine
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