The Union movie review: Julian Farino's new spy thriller gives a lot of Citadel. Like the Russo Brothers' Prime Video espionage show, there are two spies who have a rich, romantic past. Like that series, they're on a mission to protect highly confidential data with details about spies across the globe. But the similarities end here. At its heart, the Halle Berry, Mark Wahlberg-starrer is a rare spy thriller about the American dream.

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's visited – and then abducted – by his high-school sweetheart Roxanne (Halle Berry), who transports him from New Jersey to London. She reveals herself to be a spy, who works with the CIA. Well, not directly with the CIA. She is recruited by the Union, an agency outsourced by the CIA which gets the actual work done. It hires workers who act upon the intel provided by the parent agency and get their hands dirty in the field.

Tom (JK Simmons), the Union chief, prides his task force for working as the “blue collared” over merely being the “blue-blooded.” But out of all the blue collared workers out there, why is Mike the one who's been recruited for this job? Well, for one, because of his clean record. And secondly, because Roxanne is aware that he believes he's made for much more. That he may be pulling off the average Joe front rather boastfully, but when the night falls, he's also the one who sleeps with their high-school English teacher in order to make himself count. The latent wish to do something bigger, more meaningful is also embedded in the American dream.

Not just his story

But Mike doesn't have a dramatic transformation arc, where he rises to the occasion and becomes the agency's top spy. He doesn't do the heavy-lifting here, which makes refreshing, logical sense. However, that also makes Mike a dull boy. Mark Wahlberg appears too steely to react to his absurd predicament – he was eating Subway on top of an under-construction building one day, and the next day, he's a spy in London, hired by his ex-girlfriend no less! Mark goes about this bizarreness with a strange clinical detachment in a situation that could've been quite comical.

He does make up for it during his training montage. Director Julian Farino doesn't treat the sequence with the intensity of an espionage thriller, but with the beats of a funny TikTok video. It's oddly hilarious to watch a tough guy like Mark Wahlberg get beaten around and slapped across the face twice by a woman. To his credit, Mark continues to be that sloppy, clumsy spy right till the end and doesn't miraculously save the day. One can't say the same for his co-star though. Halle Berry is top-notch as the ace action spy, she moves like a slick panther, and her stance is bang on.

Old wine, new bottle

It's also heartening to witness her arc. Her identity as a Black woman is central to her growth in a myriad ways – to not have a boyfriend stand up to his racist father, to disappear like all spies do in order to escape her trauma, and by taking the lead, to prove that the American dream is not just a white man's property – the Black population contributes to nation-building as much, or even more, if given equal opportunities. At the same time, she also reaches a point where she has to choose what she primarily is – an American or a Black American.

It's a surprise JK Simmons wasn't cast as the stereotypical spy top boss yet. Needless to say, he fits right in, but also represents everything that's wrong with the film and the saturated espionage genre at large. A James Bond's M-like figure barking orders on walkie talkie, spies hiding in plain sight while shooting in broad daylight, exhilarating but repetitive chase sequences particularly set against exotic locales like Croatia, and more which can't be dwelled upon without spoilers. Given it's yet another old wine in a new bottle, a couple of self-deprecating jokes come as a breath of fresh air. For instance, a spy referring to going rogue as “freelancing.” But these are few and far between. This genre now desperately demands excessive shaking or stirring.

The Union will premiere on Netflix on August 16.

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