The Union
Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry partner for fun yet formulaic comedic action-thriller.
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Despite having prolific careers spanning over 30 years, Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry never co-starred in a movie together … until now. The perfunctory project is the formulaic yet fun comedic action-thriller “The Union” (now streaming on Netflix).
After the majority of their team is killed in action, spy Roxanne Hall (Berry, rocking a hairdo that borders between chic and shit) and her handler Tom Brennan (J.K. Simmons, incessantly sporting a Detroit Tigers baseball cap … his real-life team) must find an unknown commodity to aid them in retrieving a McGuffin flash drive revealing the identities of every law enforcement officer in the Western Hemisphere.
Roxanne’s mind goes to her hometown of Patterson, N.J. and her high school sweetheart Mike McKenna (Wahlberg). Mike’s a construction worker who busies himself in bars with his buddies when he’s not getting busy with his seventh grade English teacher Nicole (Dana Delaney). He’s the sort of cat who still lives with his mother Lorraine (Lorraine Bracco), listens to Bruce Springsteen and starts his pickup truck with a screwdriver – Jersey through and through.
Mike’s excited to see Roxanne and hopes to rekindle their long-lost romance. She in turn drugs and drags his ass to London where she trains him in spycraft – driving, fighting, shooting, running on roofs like he’s Tom Cruise in a “Mission: Impossible” movie.
“The Union” is helmed by Julian Farino (he was one of the primary directors of the Wahlberg-produced HBO series “Entourage”) and scripted by returning Netflix scribes Joe Barton (“The Ritual”) and David Guggenheim (“The Christmas Chronicles”). The movie is slickly directed and its patter is snappier than what we generally get with streaming fare. I do wish the PG-13 picture was edgier and R-rated – it could’ve and should’ve been sexier and would’ve benefited from being more violent.
Wahlberg and Berry have decent enough chemistry and it’s refreshing to see a cinematic romance between two people in their 50s. They’re the reason audiences will check this out and they’re featured front and center, but they’re also surrounded by a sterling if somewhat underused supporting cast. Simmons, Delaney and Bracco are all really good actors and the movie might’ve benefitted from giving them more face time. Mike Colter plays an agent with whom Roxanne has a past. Jackie Earle Haley turns up as a hacker named Foreman. Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje shows up as agency muscle. These guys are great. Give ‘em more to do!
“The Union” sports a promising partnership between Wahlberg and Berry and leaves itself wide open for a sequel. While it ain’t perfect, I’d stick around for a second installment.