To stand out, a spy movie must have breathtaking action set pieces or an intricate script that doesn’t underestimate the viewer, preferably both. Starring Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry, Netflix’s The Union has neither.
The Union introduces yet another secret intelligence agency that works in the shadows to defend the Western world from unknown threats. However, what supposedly makes the titular Union unique compared to other espionage franchises is that all its recruits come from blue-collar jobs. The idea is that lower-class people can easily disappear in the crowd, as they are used to being invisible. That means the Union prefers to teach the working person how to shoot, parkour, and falsify identities rather than train a white-collar worker to wait tables properly, for instance.
The movie follows Berry as Roxanne, a Union agent who needs to recruit an outsider after her team is betrayed and killed during an operation that went south. Her choice is Mike (Wahlberg), a construction worker who still lives in his mother’s home. The Union follows Mike and Roxanne as they try to untangle the mystery of the dead agents while reliving their decades-old high school fling.
There is some merit in creating a spy agency with only essential workers. It’s a promising concept that should have allowed writers Joe Barton and David Guggenheim to approach old espionage tropes from a different angle. However, as much as The Union wants to appear unique, everything beyond its recruiting process fits the templates created by movie series such as Mission: Impossible.
The Union agents are still dependent on almost magical technological tools, with gear and gadgets that come from the same multimillionaire pipeline as every other government agency. So, in the end, it doesn’t really matter if the Union is composed of blue collars, as their planning, strategy, and execution stick to the things we’ve already seen somewhere else.
The script’s lack of imagination also extends to its character dynamics. Mike is quickly thrust into the Union as the miraculous solution to a complex problem. There’s a training montage, of course, that underlines how fast Mike learns the ropes of being a spy, rushing through six months of training in only two weeks. After that, he’s already put on the field, throwing fists against highly skilled assassins and surviving all sorts of near-death situations. In her turn, Berry is a femme fatale who doesn’t know defeat and uses her mastery of every weapon to always come up on top.
Together, Mike and Roxanne are as bland as action heroes can be, moving from set piece to set piece while following breadcrumbs left behind by obnoxiously simple villains. The movie tries to give the duo some dramatic tension by hammering down the fact they used to date in high school. Still, even that falls flat as Mike and Roxanne inevitably fall in love with each other again, slowly resisting their urges in the name of the mission until fate brings them together.
If that’s not enough to illustrate how shallow The Union can be, it’s worth noting that the twists in the plot can be anticipated after just a couple of minutes, as the movie shamelessly recycles the story told in better movies. Plus, to add insult to injury, villains will still take their time to monologue and connect all the obvious pieces to ensure the audience understands the plot, even if they spend two hours looking at their phones.
Even if clichés can be annoying, not everyone is a film buff, and the familiarity with The Union’s plot might even be lost to some viewers. So, it’s important to clarify there is nothing particularly wrong with The Union beyond its lack of creativity. However, every aspect of the movie highlights how this is the classic second-screen content streamers like to produce, something to leave on when chatting with friends or playing a game. The stakes are low, the story is familiar, and the dialogue is so plain and redundant that there is absolutely no way to feel lost, even if you grab a pizza without hitting pause.
Even the action scenes of The Union are mediocre, at best. From car chases to rooftop battles, the movie never takes any real risk, betting on commonplace choreographies and editing to keep viewers entertained without paying too much attention to what’s happening on the screen. It’s no surprise, then, that set pieces overstay their welcome as they are stretched to increase the movie’s runtime – Netflix’s biggest metric for success is the total amount of minutes that a piece of content is played worldwide.
Like most second-screen content, The Union only stands out due to its star-studded cast. There’s only so much good actors can do to elevate a boring script. Even so, The Union does boast some noteworthy performances.
Berry can’t do much, as Roxanne is a unidimensional badass without a single interesting layer beyond her desire to help people. Considering that The Mothership got canceled, that’s twice in the last year that Netflix sabotaged the actress.
On the other hand, Wahlberg can at least pretend he’s dealing with a gripping moral conundrum as he tries to defend his uneventful life as one that’s worth living, even though he quickly embraces his new spy gig. While the reasoning behind Mike’s splintered loyalty doesn’t stand one minute of critical thinking, at least this gives Wahlberg enough material to show why he’s such a beloved star.
Beyond the leading couple, The Union also counts on the always incredible J.K. Simmons. That man is a national treasure that can do wonders with just a bunch of poorly written lines, and it’s always fun to see him enter the scene. Juliett Quinn is also delightful, but everyone else is mostly there to pop up on occasional scenes, grab their checks, and go home.
What’s most surprising about The Union is how Netflix is clearly testing the waters to turn it into a franchise. The movie tells a standalone story, but the fate of some characters is purposely left open for a sequel to be produced if the story is well received. At least this time, Netflix’s hopes for a spy universe lay on a forgettable movie instead of the disastrous Heart of Stone. Plus, since Gal Gadot’s offensively bad action flick was a huge hit, The Union will likely become one too. By being average, it already deserves more.
- Star power of Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry
- J.K. Simmons' scene-stealing performance
- Potentially interesting concept of blue-collar spies
- Predictable and clichéd plot
- Mediocre action sequences
- Shallow character development
- Lack of creativity in storytelling
- Overreliance on familiar spy movie tropes
- Stretched-out scenes to increase runtime
Published: Aug 16, 2024 05:04 am