Directed by Simon Cellan Jones — Screenplay by David Coggeshall.
Simon Cellan Jones’ The Family Plan follows Dan Morgan (played by Mark Wahlberg), a car salesman who lives in Buffalo, New York with his wife Jessica (played by Michelle Monaghan), as well as his children Nina (played by Zoe Colletti), Kyle (played by Van Crosby), and Max (played by Iliana Norris and Vienna Norris). They seem like a normal family, but, in reality (and unbeknownst to his family), Dan isn’t the patriarch of the family’s real name and he is actually hiding from his associates from his past life as a hired assassin. When, one day, a picture of him is posted to the internet, he and his family are targeted. In an attempt to keep his family safe, he makes up an impromptu family vacation and has to keep hitmen off their backs on-the-go. Dan has to work up the courage to tell his family the truth, and, while they are on their road trip, he sees new sides of his beloved family.
Mark Wahlberg was wrong for this part. It’s not that Wahlberg isn’t a good enough actor, there are definitely enough examples out there of him being fairly good at his job (e.g. The Departed or Lone Survivor). The problem is more so with the difficult tonal balancing act that it is trying to walk. This movie is clearly trying to be a family action-comedy version of the Bob Odenkirk-led Nobody, which also features a family man revealing his secretive action-related past. However, The Family Plan is, at times, almost going for a National Lampoon’s Vacation or We’re The Millers-esque comedic tone. Much too often the family comedy aspects are frontloaded, while the film plays up how it is supposedly unbelievable that someone like Wahlberg could’ve had this dangerous past or possess these action movie star skills.
For something like this to work, you need to cast someone against type, which is exactly why Odenkirk was so perfect for Nobody. If they had cast a Jason Bateman or, ideally, a Chevy Chase-esque type, then the film might’ve more easily nailed that tonal balancing act where the action is exciting because you don’t expect that actor to be an action star, while, at the same time, having a competent comedic actor to land the family scenes.
Now, having said that, this film doesn’t just succeed or fail based on who its lead is, it also falls flat because it isn’t funny enough (I chuckled once or maybe twice during the film) and because the action isn’t up to the standard that modern action filmmakers are setting. There is an early scene where Wahlberg is fighting someone in a grocery store, while his toddler is strapped to his chest, and, really, in this scene you see why the film just doesn’t succeed. Not only is the whole thing outright unbelievable, but the hand-to-hand combat features jarring unintelligible frantic editing. And, as is also the case with the rest of the film, we constantly get these close-up reaction shots of the baby that are just not funny and that get tiring immediately.
I will say that it looks like Michelle Monaghan and Mark Wahlberg had a good time filming it, which is always a plus, and that one of the pivotal daddy-daughter conversations works — so Zoe Colletti does deserve some praise. Ultimately, it is not nearly funny enough to be a solid family comedy, and not exciting or surprising enough to be an action-thriller. It never gets close to picking a lane that it can succeed in. Instead, it ends up as a forgettable and generic film. It’s the kind of straight-to-streaming bargain bin stuff that Wahlberg has made too much of in recent years (e.g. Spenser Confidential or Me Time).
4 out of 10
– Review Written by Jeffrey Rex Bertelsen.
I'm Jeffrey Rex 