Mark Wahlberg Film ‘The Family Plan’ Premieres on Apple TV Plus
He’s a suburban dad with a humdrum life, but he’s keeping a secret from his wife and kids
Movie The Family Plan, with Mark Wahlberg as a husband, father and car salesman in the suburbs with a secret past, premieres on Apple TV Plus December 15. Decades earlier, Wahlberg’s Dan character was an elite government assassin. When old enemies track him down, Dan packs up his wife, played by Michelle Monaghan, his teen daughter and son, and baby, and steers the minivan from Buffalo toward Las Vegas.
“Determined to protect his family — while treating them to the vacation of a lifetime — Dan must put his long-dormant skills into action, without revealing his true identity,” according to Apple TV Plus.
As she learns of his back story, Dan’s wife Jessica refers to him as “James Bond in a minivan.”
Simon Cellan Jones directed the film, which is rated PG-13.
Zoe Colletti, Van Crosby, Said Taghmaoui, Maggie Q and Ciaran Hinds are also in the cast.
Reviews of The Family Plan are mixed. A review in the NY Times said “Wahlberg is more charismatic than he’s been onscreen in nearly a decade, and his chemistry with Monaghan is the foundation of a plausible marriage — they keep the domestic aspect grounded, even as the assassin stuff gets a touch ludicrous.”
The Chicago Sun-Times called The Family Plan “goofy, occasionally amusing yet tone-deaf and casually violent,” and said the movie “asks us to buy into the premise that going on the run with your family without telling them why and killing a series of foes along the way is a great way to reignite the sexual flames with your wife and bond with your sullen teenage kids.”
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Michael Malone is content director at B+C and Multichannel News. He joined B+C in 2005 and has covered network programming, including entertainment, news and sports on broadcast, cable and streaming; and local broadcast television, including writing the "Local News Close-Up" market profiles. He also hosted the podcasts "Busted Pilot" and "Series Business." His journalism has also appeared in The New York Times, The L.A. Times, The Boston Globe and New York magazine.