The Union Movie Review: Julian Farino’s new spy thriller is very reminiscent of Citadel. Like the Russo Brothers’ Prime Video spy show, it features two spies with a rich and romantic past. Like that series, they are on a mission to protect highly confidential data with detailed information about spies around the world. But the similarities end there. At its core, this film starring Halle Berry, Mark Wahlberg is a rare spy thriller about the American dream.
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The working class spy
Mark Wahlberg plays Mike, a construction worker who proudly represents the humble American dream, building the nation one brick, one pipe at a time. One day, he visits — and then kidnaps — his high-school girlfriend Roxanne (Halle Berry), who moves in with him from New Jersey to London. She reveals herself to be a spy, working with the CIA. Well, not directly with the CIA. She is recruited by the Union, an agency outsourced by the CIA that gets the real work done. It hires workers who act on intelligence provided by the parent agency and get their hands dirty in the field.
Union head Tom (J.K. Simmons) is proud of his task force for being “blue collar” rather than “blue-blooded.” But why is Mike chosen for the job out of all the blue-collar workers? For one thing, because he has a clean record. And for another, because Roxanne knows Mike thinks he’s meant for more. He may be trying to look like an average guy, but when the night comes, he sleeps with his high-school English teacher to give himself a sense of worth. The latent desire to do something bigger, more meaningful, is also inherent in the American dream.
not just his story
But there’s no dramatic transformation in Mike, where he takes advantage of the opportunity to become the agency’s top spy. He doesn’t do heavy-handed things here, which makes refreshing, logical sense. However, it also makes Mike a dull guy. Mark Wahlberg appears too stoic to react to his absurd situation – he was eating Subway on top of a building under construction one day, and the next day, he’s a spy in London, hired by his ex-girlfriend! Mark brings this absurdity with a strange clinical detachment to a situation that could have been quite funny.
He makes up for it during his training montage. Director Julian Farino infuses this sequence not with the intensity of a spy thriller, but with the tunes of a fun TikTok video. It’s oddly funny to see a tough guy like Mark Wahlberg get beaten up by a woman and slapped in the face twice. To his credit, Mark remains a careless, clumsy spy until the end and miraculously doesn’t save the day. The same can’t be said for his co-star, however. Halle Berry is top notch as the perfect action spy, she moves like a slick panther, and her stance is just perfect.
Old wine, new bottle
It’s also exciting to watch her character evolve. Her identity as a black woman is important in her development in many ways – finding a boyfriend who can’t stand up to her racist father, disappearing like all the spies to escape her trauma, and proving through leadership that the American dream isn’t just the property of a white man – the black population contributes just as much or even more to nation building if given equal opportunities. Also, she reaches a point where she has to choose what she primarily is – an American or a black American.
It’s a wonder JK Simmons hasn’t been cast as the stereotypical spy top boss yet. Needless to say, he fits right in, but at the same time he represents everything that’s wrong with the film and the saturated spy genre. James Bond’s M-like figure giving orders over walkie talkies, spies hiding in plain sight while shooting in broad daylight, exciting but repetitive chase scenes set exclusively in exotic locations like Croatia, and much more that can’t be left without spoilers. Given that this is another old wine in a new bottle, a few self-deprecating jokes come across like a breath of fresh air. For instance, a spy who calls felonies “freelancing”. But these are few and far between. The genre now desperately demands excessive shaking or stirring.
The Union premieres on Netflix on August 16.
