Review: The Union

The Union is a dad movie full of dad jokes and dad music, including multiple Bruce Springsteen songs (fitting for a film that was originally titled “Our Man from Jersey”). And like a dad joke, this Netflix action comedy is unlikely to evoke more than a begrudging chuckle or an affable eye roll on either side of the spectrum. This is an aggressively fine, moderately enjoyable picture, starring two talented actors even your father can name, who trade decent jokes amidst unremarkable action scenes. 

The Union shares enough DNA with 1996’s Mission: Impossible that it feels like cloning could’ve been involved. Mark Wahlberg stars as salt-of-the-earth Jersey guy Mike. He works in construction and hasn’t lived anywhere outside Paterson, New Jersey, for his entire life, including high school when he had romance with Roxanne, played by Halle Berry. Decades later, Roxanne shows up at the local bar, seemingly randomly, but she later reveals that she needs his help. She didn’t just disappear after high school; she was recruited to join The Union, a mysterious agency filled with regular-looking people who actually make the world function. The movie’s MacGuffin — like the NOC list from the inaugural Mission: Impossible — is a stolen list of anyone who has ever worked for Western governments, from the CIA down to the police. Roxanne needs the aid of a regular guy with no affiliation to help get the list back since everyone else’s identity is compromised.

The central premise is more than a little silly, but it never acknowledges its goofiest idea. The Union members are meant to fade into the background, which is believable for its founder, played by J.K. Simmons, or its computer expert, played by Jackie Earle Haley. Yet casting an all-timer of a beauty like Berry as one of these supposedly unmemorable agents could be the movie’s biggest joke, but it never even winks at this. (Its best joke is one at the expense of the Knicks, by the way.)

However silly her casting is, Berry remains great as the action heroine, and she and Wahlberg have pretty sparky chemistry together. Considering that they’ve both been working in Hollywood for decades and are of the same generation, it’s surprising that they haven’t collaborated on screen yet, though some sweet photos in the credits from the ‘90s reveal that they have been in each other’s orbits. Wahlberg is generally stronger in comedic roles than purely serious ones, so The Union’s Mike is a solid fit. He gets to have some fun here as an average good guy who is expected to be the Good Guy when he gets pulled into an international plot, complete with the requisite training montage. 

There are some nods at bigger ideas, with The Union’s acknowledgement that hardworking regular folk are critical to the world’s continuing existence, but it’s not exactly subtle about this. It’s called The Union, for God’s sake, and Simmons’ character explicitly expresses these thoughts in about a dozen different ways in an early speech. It doesn’t trust that its audience will get its very clear — and not incorrect — message about the importance of “blue collar versus blue blood” people and the role they play. The script from Joe Barton and David Guggenheim is kind of dumb at points, with lines like, “Your life is in danger. All of our lives are in danger,” earning a “NO SHIT” in my notes.  

For all its efforts to appeal to a very particular demo, it’s difficult to imagine this being your dad’s favorite movie — or anyone’s really. (For the record, depending on his generation, your dad’s favorite movie is predictably either The Godfather or The Shawshank Redemption.) It feels engineered to entertain while it’s on your screen and then fade from memory like The Union’s agents should. It’s not good, but it’s good enough.

C+

“The Union” hits Netflix tomorrow.

Kimber Myers is a freelance film and TV critic for 'The Los Angeles Times' and other outlets. Her day job is at a tech company in their content studio, and she has also worked at several entertainment-focused startups, building media partnerships, developing content marketing strategies, and arguing for consistent use of the serial comma in push notification copy.

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