Mark Wahlberg continues to occupy just the weirdest space for middle-aged action stars. He could probably be commanding his own blockbuster franchise, like Tom Cruise does, but instead he’s given his career over to playing the hot dad with great biceps and ripped abs, domesticated dudes who used to have thrilling lives but have settled for changing diapers and meal prep. A big part of it is that he’s just such a natural comedian, and still gifted enough as an action star, that he’s indispensable to the action-comedy genre and movies like The Family Plan, which arrives today on Apple TV+ streaming and is destined to be forgotten by tomorrow.
Wahlberg plays Dan, who is in perfect wedded bliss to Jessica (the always-reliable Michelle Monaghan, also a victim of action-comedy pigeonholing). They have three kids total: college-aged feminist Nina (Zoe Colletti), amped-up gamer Kyle (Van Crosby), and the baby, who gets more screen time than anyone cooing gleefully everytime something goes off-the-rails. A used car salesman and overprotective patriarch, Dan nonetheless is hiding a secret: he used to be an elite government assassin in his former life but got out of it when the missions got sketchy. When his past catches up to him, Dan decides to take the family on a road trip to Las Vegas where they can start a new life.
Of course, they have to get there alive first. And Dan will have to break the news to everyone that dear ol’ Dad isn’t the man they think he is. Hey Dad, kinda hard to tell the kids to behave when you’ve been lying to them for eighteen years!
But that’s sorta the point of The Family Plan, as Dan navigates the dangerous, reckless life he used to have with the boring, but ultimately more rewarding one he built with Jessica. The film, penned by David Coggeshall and directed by British helmer Simon Cellan Jones, takes great pains to point out that all of us have different versions of ourselves out there. For Jessica, she was a world class athlete before she met Dan, but had to give it up due to injury. When the two got together, they had moved on from their previous lives and settled easily into starting a family.
There are spurts of action and a few chuckles as Dan engages in car chases while the family sleeps, only the baby seems to be up for all of it. As the walls start closing in the antics get more ridiculous; there’s a stop at a college so Nina can confront her boyfriend and Jessica can relive her drunken glory years. In keeping with the outdated freshness of the material, the whole gamer storyline culminates at a Valorant tourney as esports in general is facing a downturn in popularity. The Family Plan is well-executed content, good for a few laughs and some distracting violence but not much else. Its biggest crime might be wasting the talents of Maggie Q and Ciaran Hinds, both deserving of more than the meager moments they get saddled with as shady supporting players to Wahlberg.
The Family Plan is streaming now on Apple TV+.
