Diksha Sundriyal
Fate takes a strange turn for Ana in Prime Video’s ‘Upgraded’ when she receives an upgrade to first-class on a flight to London from New York. On the flight, she meets a handsome stranger and, in an attempt to impress him, lies about the true nature of her job. It’s a small lie, and it won’t hurt her, she thinks. But then, the stranger turns out to have connections with her job, and all of it turns into a huge mess. Ana works at Erwins art gallery, which is one of the most prestigious places for her to be working as a novice. Considering how huge a deal it is in the film, one can’t help but wonder if it’s a real place.
Erwins is a Fictional Art Gallery in Upgraded
‘Upgraded’ is a fictional story based on the screenplay by Christine Lenig, Luke Spencer Roberts, and Justin Mathews and directed by Carlson Young. The romance-drama depends on Ana’s job at Erwins and her desire to do well there to push her chances of finally owning her own gallery someday. It is an important plot device for the film, but it is completely fictional.
While Ana is from New York, the story mostly takes place in London. After impressing her boss, Ana suddenly gets a call and is told to get on a plane to London with her. The rest of the film has Ana trying to make things work, doing everything her boss wants from her while also falling in love with the stranger she met on the flight. Due to the demand of the story, the cast and crew of the film set up shop in England and filmed across various cities, including London. There is no Erwins art gallery in London either, which means that a real-life location in the city was transformed into an art gallery, where all the important decisions regarding Ana’s future are made.
Though Erwin is not an actual place, the creators of the movie have created it in the image of real art galleries and the fierce competition between them, which leads to a hectic lifestyle for people like Ana, who are trying to make their mark in the industry that doesn’t tolerate failure. While it doesn’t do her much good financially, and she is rarely at the center of the action, at least in the beginning, Ana still feels lucky to have a job at Erwins and work with Claire, her boss. It provides her the opportunity to have her foot in the door of the art world. Because for all its glory, Erwins is not the endgame for Ana. What she really wants is to one day start an art gallery of her own. Erwins is just a place for her to learn the ropes and figure out how things work in the art business, so eventually, she can go independent and be her own boss.
Read More: Where Was Amazon Prime&’s Upgraded Shot?
