鈥淭he Union,鈥� an action comedy with Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry, should have been more fun. Or more exciting. It certainly had a lot working in its favor, including big stars and a budget for globetrotting.
But it鈥檚 lacking a certain charm that could help it be something more than the Netflix movie playing in the background.
鈥淭he Union,鈥� streaming Friday, is a fairy tale 鈥� a very male one, about a middle-aged everyman (Wahlberg) whose life never quite got started and who gets recruited to be a spy out of the blue. Mike is a broke construction worker still living in his hometown of Patterson, New Jersey, (yes, there are Springsteen songs) with his mother, hanging with his old friends in bars. His biggest win of late was a one-night stand with his 7th grade English teacher and the one event on his calendar is his friend鈥檚 wedding in a few weeks where he鈥檚 the best man.
That鈥檚 all to say that for Mike, it is a breath of fresh air when his old high school girlfriend Roxanne (Berry), walks into the bar one evening looking like a punk rock superhero. Glamorous and confident, she has clearly found a life outside of Patterson. The problem, or a problem I think, is that we already know what she does. Instead of putting the audience in Mike鈥檚 shoes, as the fish out of water trying to figure out why he鈥檚 woken up in a luxury suite in London after meeting his high school ex in his hometown bar, 鈥淭he Union鈥� starts on Roxanne. It begins with a kind of 鈥淢ission: Impossible鈥�-style extraction gone wrong, in Trieste, Italy, where most of her team ends up dead.
The idea came from Stephen Levinson, Wahlberg鈥檚 longtime business partner, who together helped bring another middle of the road Netflix action-comedy to life in 鈥淪penser Confidential.鈥� And it was directed very basically by Julian Farino, a journeyman director who helmed many episodes of 鈥淓ntourage,鈥� and written by Joe Barton and David Guggenheim. And there is a sort of charming fantasy about the notion that anyone could be an international spy given the opportunity and a few weeks of training. In the movies, women get to find out they鈥檙e secret royalty and men get to find out they鈥檙e secretly great spies.
鈥淭he Union鈥� never quite hits its stride tonally. It鈥檚 not silly enough to be a comedy, but I think that鈥檚 what it would prefer to be. J.K. Simmons is given too little to work with as the head of this secret agency, which also employs underwritten characters played by Jackie Earle Haley, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje and Alice Lee. One of the more moderately successful running jokes is that Mike鈥檚 undercover character is from Boston (get it?). A hulking English henchman even has a heart to heart with him about 鈥淕ood Will Hunting.鈥�
Berry and Wahlberg are fine together, with an easy rapport, but zero chemistry. This would not be problem if the movie wasn鈥檛 also trying to be a will-they-won鈥檛-they romance between a woman who forgot her roots and a guy who needs to. I never quite bought into the idea that either of them are actually still thinking about their high school relationship and what went wrong. There鈥檚 been a lot of life in the interim to dwell on decisions you made at 17. Not everyone can be Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn, or even Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton 鈥� but maybe the story should have changed to suit these actors.
There鈥檚 just not enough there 鈥� action, comedy, romance, art 鈥� to demand (or, rather, earn) your full attention.
鈥淭he Union,鈥� a Netflix release streaming Friday, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association for 鈥渟equences of strong violence, suggestive material and some strong language.鈥� Running time: 107 minutes. One and a half stars out of four.
Lindsey Bahr, The Associated Press
