Mark Wahlberg has had a great career starting from his days as a musician known as Marky Mark with his band the Funky Bunch. He parlayed his meteoric fame into an underwear commercial pitchman for Calvin Klein. This allowed him to start his career as an actor. He hasn’t always been great in his more than thirty-year career but he has had the occasional great performances such as his hilarious turn as Sergeant Dignam and his great job as Irish Mickey Ward, a boxer from Lowell, Massachusetts.  His latest film The Family Plan shows he’s gone the gambit of roles that he’s now a father figure, something he embraces entirely in his real life outside of Hollywood.

Dan (Mark Wahlberg) is a normal guy who sells cars at a car dealership, has a wife Jessica, two teenagers Nina (Zoe Margaret Coletti and Kyle (Van Crosby), who are like normal teens, who want their independence, and a baby Max. At first glance, Wahlberg’s character is a happy man with the life he has until his past has caught up to him. He notices men are trailing him while he’s driving and following him at the grocery store. His normal life is upended and he has to revert to the life he left behind as an assassin. While trying to hide it. He convinces his family they need to go on vacation with him to Las Vegas.

This story was written by David Coggershall and directed by Simon Callen Jones. This family dramedy turned out to be a road trip film. Along the way, there are several action sequences, one involving a bunch of thugs on motorcycles trying to kill the family while they are riding along with Wahlberg’s character in their minivan. He puts the music up in the earbuds and proceeds to take out the thugs one by one with a furious car chase involved. This was a fun scene of the action combined with the family sleeping the whole time. The story does a nice job of cutting between these types of sequences and the family drama.

There is the feel of True Lies, the classic James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger collaboration in this story. How Wahlberg’s character is hiding his hidden dangerous life from his wife and kids. Is he really a family man or was this a ruse to hide his past? From what he says he is truly at home with this lifestyle and is in love with his wife and kids. He gets to have his cake and eat it too as far as having both of these lifestyles. It’s a nice dichotomy.  Of course, his wife isn’t happy when she finds out he’s supposedly been lying to her this entire time, eighteen years to be exact. This causes issues with her and the kids. 

This film has some subplots within it that tie together with the overall story. These subplots help the viewers understand the lives of the kids better. They have independent lives and things they want to focus on but they also learn about themselves. The parents learn about them as well and how they feel about them. Kids always feel parents are too overprotective and there is a reason for that. They are truly looking out for their kids and these parents are the same. They love their kids. They mean the world to them. They are always there for them though through thick and thin. This part of the movie is very heartwarming and fun. Families will enjoy this aspect of the film, because of sure they will be able to relate to these elements of the story.

The story mainly focuses on the five main characters but occasionally veers off onto two other characters. One of which is a woman, Gwen (Maggie Q) that Monaghan’s character meets in a workout class. She has a secret that gets revealed in the third act. Let’s just say her martial arts skills come to good use in a fight scene at the end of the film. The other is Ciaran Hinds who plays the leader of a hit squad that Wahlberg’s character used to work forcin his past life. He also has a secret he’s hiding or Wahlbergs character is hiding about him from his family. They are both fine but play pretty basic characters in the overall story. I liked the family dynamic much better.

The Family Plan Isn’t going to blow audiences away but it has a fun action packed adventure at its core. The strength of the movie is the family dynamic between Walhberg, Monaghan and his three kids. Little Max played by twins was fin to watch react to all the craziness.  The raod trip aspects that end up in Las Vegas are well directed and written by Jones and Coggershall. This is a fun movie that’s not trying to be anything to big or over the top but it’s enjoyable for what it is. Families will surely enjoy it I’m certain of that. Wahlberg has progressed into the dad roles but they aren’t a bad fit for him. He’s at home in these roles.

The Family Plan is Streaming on Apple Tv+

4 stars

Dan Skip Allen