“The Union,” an action comedy starring Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry, could have been more fun. Or more exciting. The film certainly had many advantages, including big stars and a globetrotting budget.

But it lacks the charm that could make it more than just a Netflix movie in the background.

“The Union,” which airs Friday, is a fairy tale – a very male one, about an average middle-aged man whose life has never quite gotten off the ground and who is recruited out of the blue as a spy. Mike is a broke construction worker who still lives with his mother in his hometown of Patterson, New Jersey, and hangs out in bars with his old friends. His biggest recent success was a one-night stand with his seventh-grade English teacher, and the only event on his calendar is his friend’s wedding in a few weeks, at which he is best man.

Which is just to say that it’s a refreshing change of pace for Mike when his old high school girlfriend Roxanne comes into the bar one night dressed in punk rock superhero gear. Glamorous and confident, she’s clearly found a life outside of Patterson. The problem, or, in my opinion, a problem, is that we already know what she’s doing. Rather than putting the audience in Mike’s shoes, a fish out of water trying to figure out why he’s waking up in a luxury suite in London after meeting his high school ex in his hometown bar, The Union opens with Roxanne. It begins with a sort of Mission: Impossible-style rescue gone wrong in Trieste, Italy, in which most of her team perish.

The idea came from Stephen Levinson, Wahlberg’s longtime business partner who brought another mediocre Netflix action comedy to life with Spenser Confidential. It was essentially directed by Julian Farino, a veteran director who has directed many episodes of Entourage, and the screenplay was written by Joe Barton and David Guggenheim. And there’s something charming about the idea that anyone could be an international spy with the opportunity and a few weeks of training. In the movies, women learn that they are secretly royalty, and men learn that they are secretly great spies.

“The Union” never really gets going tonally. It’s not silly enough to be a comedy, but I think it would prefer that. JK Simmons is given too little scope as the head of this secret agency that also uses underrated characters like Jackie Earle Haley, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje and Alice Lee. One of the moderately successful running gags is that Mike’s undercover character is from Boston. A beefy English henchman even has a candid conversation with him about “Good Will Hunting.”

Berry and Wahlberg get on well, they understand each other well, but there’s no chemistry at all. That wouldn’t be a problem if the film didn’t also tell a make-or-break love story between a woman who has forgotten her roots and a man who must forget them. I could never quite accept the idea that either of them is actually still thinking about their high school relationship and what went wrong. In the meantime, you’ve had a lot of time to reflect on decisions you made when you were 17. Not everyone can be Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn, or even Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton – but maybe the story should have been changed to suit those actors.

There’s just not enough – action, comedy, romance, art – to demand your full attention.

“The Union,” a Netflix release streaming Friday, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association for “scenes of strong violence, explicit material and some strong language.” Running time: 107 minutes. One and a half stars out of four.

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