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The Family Plan
Despite a charming performance from Mark Wahlberg in the starring role, 2023's The Family Plan is a long and lumbering story that starts off promisingly, but starts to run out of gas around the halfway point before providing a surprising twist for the finale.
Wahlberg plays Dan Morgan, a man living a quiet existence in Buffalo, New York with his wife and three kids. Morgan seems perfectly content in his existence until his past catches up to him in the local supermarket with his youngest son strapped to his chest. Dan busily makes plans to relocate and then gathers his family, informing them that they are going on vacation in Las Vegas. It seems that Dan used to be a government assassin and has been hiding from someone in suburbia for decades
David Coggeshal's screenplay takes a little bit too much time establishing the Morgans as the perfect family, especially the part where the kids think that they hate him. We've already been provided a clue as to what's going on when we get two separate scenes revealing that Dan doesn't like to be photographed. The showdown in the supermarket was beautifully staged and photograph with an extra layer of tension provided because Dan's baby was still strapped to his chest, Of course, Dan doesn't have the nerve to tell his family what's really going on, so to expand running time we have to watch daughter Nina whine about her cheating boyfriend and son Kyle blame Dad for making him stop gaming, though Kyle's gaming skills do conveniently come into play later. I also didn't buy that high speed chase that Dan's family conveniently slept through.
Simon Cellan Jones' direction does reveal a skill with the action sequence, though the pacing of the film is deadly. Wahlberg is sincere as Dan and Michelle Monaghan is usual charming self as his wife. This film also provided a welcome return to the screen for Maggie Q, who I haven't seen onscreen in a minute. Still, the longest two hours of my life.
Despite a charming performance from Mark Wahlberg in the starring role, 2023's The Family Plan is a long and lumbering story that starts off promisingly, but starts to run out of gas around the halfway point before providing a surprising twist for the finale.
Wahlberg plays Dan Morgan, a man living a quiet existence in Buffalo, New York with his wife and three kids. Morgan seems perfectly content in his existence until his past catches up to him in the local supermarket with his youngest son strapped to his chest. Dan busily makes plans to relocate and then gathers his family, informing them that they are going on vacation in Las Vegas. It seems that Dan used to be a government assassin and has been hiding from someone in suburbia for decades
David Coggeshal's screenplay takes a little bit too much time establishing the Morgans as the perfect family, especially the part where the kids think that they hate him. We've already been provided a clue as to what's going on when we get two separate scenes revealing that Dan doesn't like to be photographed. The showdown in the supermarket was beautifully staged and photograph with an extra layer of tension provided because Dan's baby was still strapped to his chest, Of course, Dan doesn't have the nerve to tell his family what's really going on, so to expand running time we have to watch daughter Nina whine about her cheating boyfriend and son Kyle blame Dad for making him stop gaming, though Kyle's gaming skills do conveniently come into play later. I also didn't buy that high speed chase that Dan's family conveniently slept through.
Simon Cellan Jones' direction does reveal a skill with the action sequence, though the pacing of the film is deadly. Wahlberg is sincere as Dan and Michelle Monaghan is usual charming self as his wife. This film also provided a welcome return to the screen for Maggie Q, who I haven't seen onscreen in a minute. Still, the longest two hours of my life.