The Union (2024) Review: Julian Farino Botches Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry’s First On-Screen Pairing With This Uninspired Spy Action-Comedy Thriller

Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry team up for the first time in The Union, even though they have known each other since the ’80s. But what could have been a successful main selling point turns out to be the complete opposite. Their on-screen chemistry is near zero and I find it hard to believe, especially after watching some of the real-life photos of their younger days during the end credits.

So, what’s the problem here? Let’s start with the way Julian Farino, working from Joe Barton and David Guggenheim’s screenplay, depicts the scene where Wahlberg and Berry’s characters meet for the first time in the bar. The latter, who plays Roxanne Hall, one of the agents working for a top-secret agency called The Union, shows up in New Jersey and surprises Mike (that would be Wahlberg) one night. Mike is a construction worker and they haven’t seen each other for the longest time. We learn they used to be a couple back in high school and it was Roxanne who left him before she disappeared without a trace.

I was expecting an instant chemistry between them but that didn’t happen. Sure, there are obligatory moments where they bicker, crack jokes and all. But it’s more like watching the mere screen presences of Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry, both still looking good in their 50s and it turns out Berry is five years older than him. Sporting a dyed pixie cut, she sure looks younger than her actual age and like John Wick: Chapter 3: Parabellum, she’s a natural during some of her physically demanding performances. Mark Wahlberg, in the meantime, is the same old Mark Wahlberg that you either love or hate him. Personally, his acting comes across like he’s phoning in throughout the movie.

It seems to me like Farino doesn’t know what to do or make good use of these two actors. The flimsy story doesn’t help either in establishing their characters and even if The Union is meant for us to just sit back and just enjoy the ride, the least this movie can do is to make us — at least for me — root for their journey.

The journey in question turns out that Roxanne wants to recruit him to become the new agent for The Union. And she does so by drugging him that night and the next thing Mike wakes up in the following morning, he’s on the bed in… London. Later, Roxanne’s boss, Tom Brennan (J.K. Simmons) fill him in about why they need a “nobody” like Mike. Roxanne vouches for him for a reason that I find it hard to swallow.

Long story short, we see the reluctant and confused Mike to a man accepting Tom’s offer to join The Union. All this happens in a short period and soon, he undergoes a series of training. It’s as perfunctory as it goes and soon, Mike passes the training and they are on an espionage mission.

Yup, it’s spy-movie clichés 101 that Netflix loves to churn out these days (see movies like Red Notice and The Gray Man). But one that is devoid of personality and going back to Wahlberg and Berry’s characters, I barely sense they are in danger because the stakes are surprisingly non-existent. Sure, they get hurt and shot at but with their lacklustre chemistry and limp storytelling, it all feels bland as I sit through the movie.

Farino, however, knows well how to shoot the action sequences without resorting to jittery camerawork. It’s well-choreographed and crisply edited with one of the scenes revolving around a brief but thrilling fight between Berry’s Roxanne and a female assassin is worth mentioning here. Too bad for everything else, though including the story even shamelessly rips off the first Mission: Impossible but none of Brian De Palma’s crafty filmmaking style.

The Union is currently streaming on Netflix.