'The Union' movie review: Bland, utterly forgettable Spy thriller

Still from The Union

Film: The Union
Cast: Halle Berry, Mark Wahlberg, J. K. Simmons, Lorraine Bracco, Jackie Earle Haley, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Alice Lee, Jessica De Gouw, Mike Colter
Director: Julian Farino
Rating: 2/5
Runtime: 105 min

Yet another wannabe Spy thriller with a top secret agency that the Govt would claim no knowledge of, going about it's bussiness across international shores. This one has little to recommend it other than the unusual lead pairing. Academy award nominees Mark Wahlberg & J.K.Simmons and academy award winner Halle Berry team up but the resultant is very much a low brow effort.

The premise is completely unbelievable. Mike, a down-to earth construction worker, is thrust into the world of super spies and secret agents when his high school sweetheart, Roxanne, affiliated to the aforementioned agency going by the name ‘The Union' recruits him on a high-stakes U.S. intelligence mission. He gets trained in two weeks under leader Tom (J.K. Simmons), tech vet Foreman (Jackie Earle Haley), physical specialist Frank (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), and trainer Athena (Alice Lee), and sets out on a chase to intersect the bad guys (Russians as expected). The target is an auction, and agents are on the trail of Juliet (Jessica De Gouw), who they believe is linked to a botched job in Italy, which took the life of Nick (Mike Colter), a top Union operative.

Everything is painstakingly familiar here. Wahlberg looks comfortably poised in his regular role, Berry, works up some steam akin to a female Bond and J.K Simmons is the Boss man whose actions come under a cloud. The script is pretty much sketchy and shoddy. The narrative feels obligatory and lacks creativity. The leads look like an odd couple and the fact that there's not much chemistry between them becomes a sore point.

The Union is supposed to be "an invisible army that keeps the world running," an agency that looks for street-smart, blue collar individuals, ‘nobodys' in lay parlance, who fly under the radar. It's way too thin a premise and the narrative is equally without any depth. You just get a lost of chasing around for some instrument that we must assume as high risk for world peace.

Who is gonna believe that Mike, a down-to earth construction worker, can be thrust into the world of super spies and secret agents because his high school sweetheart, Roxanne, suddenly remembers that he is around. The film fails to provide plausible reasons for Mike to be the chosen one. Especially considering its a life-threatening operation for which he has no true technical skills. It can't be that near middle age he is going to go nostalgic about a childhood sweetheart and get easily swayed by patriotic duty. The character development and world-building is just too sloppy to be convincing. Even the brief attempts at comedy play out in an inept manner.

Other than the fairly inviting camerawork, the rest of the tech specs are pretty ordinary. The incessant gun play, series of action events, and pop-up chases coming up in abundant frequency with movement going from New Jersey to London to Italy don't amount to a thrilling experience.There's no acting involved here and the dialogues don't appear to have enough importance. This is altogether a very derivative spy thriller that fails to evoke any positive response.