‘The Union’: It Took Halle Berry to Make a Mark Wahlberg Movie Watchable

In Julian Farino’s The Union, now on Netflix, Mike (Mark Wahlberg) is your everyday, All-American dude. He works in construction by day and hangs out at the local bar with his construction buddies at night. He’s lived in New Jersey his whole life and has no plans to leave. He’s got everything he could need—a steady job, good pals, and a fling with his former seventh-grade teacher (Dana Delany). What more could he possibly need?

That’s something Mike finds himself asking when Roxanne (Halle Berry) appears at the bar one fateful night. They were the toast of their high school growing up, but Roxanne left Jersey and never looked back. Her return sparks all sorts of old feelings in Mike, and they seem to have a lot of unfinished business—and feelings—for each other. The next morning, Mike is stunned to find that he’s woken up in London. It’s his first time out of America and he didn’t even know he left. Turns out Roxanne works for a secret agency known as the Union, and she’s drugged and transported Mike to London to recruit him for a top-secret mission.

See, the Union has remained an unknown organization for eons because they specifically recruit people who fly under the radar. Working-class types, who, as the Union's leader (J.K. Simmons) puts it, know how to get things done because they’ve never been handed anything a day in their lives. The Union largely operates from London, where they’ve built a vast and powerful network of agents.

Read more at The Daily Beast.