The Accountant
Directed by: Gavin O'Connor
Written by: Bill Dubuque
Starring: Ben Affleck, Anna Kendrick, J.K. Simmons, Joe Bernthal, Jeffrey Tambor, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, John Lithgow, Jean Smart, Andy Umberger, Robert C. Treveiler, Mary Kraft, Seth Lee, Jake Presley, Ron Prather, Susan Williams
Action/Crime/Drama - 128 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 12 Oct 2016
Written by: Bill Dubuque
Starring: Ben Affleck, Anna Kendrick, J.K. Simmons, Joe Bernthal, Jeffrey Tambor, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, John Lithgow, Jean Smart, Andy Umberger, Robert C. Treveiler, Mary Kraft, Seth Lee, Jake Presley, Ron Prather, Susan Williams
Action/Crime/Drama - 128 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 12 Oct 2016
Films with a brain are few and far between in 2016. Perhaps I enjoyed The Accountant more than usual because director Gavin O’Connor lets it start slow, percolate, and only ramps up the routine shoot-em-ups later on. The script is intellectual even though it shows off some of the largest firearms we’ve seen this year, even heftier than the Captain America installment, Batman, and Suicide Squad. A forensic accountant / hitman against those who offend his moral code is no different than most undercover assassin plots, but The Accountant stands out by placing its protagonist on the autism scale. In this Rain Man meets Grosse Pointe Blank, Ben Affleck is believable exactly half the time but shines in such a well made film you may forget you are suspending disbelief.
I know Ben Affleck can play the hero. He held his own as Batman and for all of his ups and downs in his acting career, I don’t hear anybody mocking his turn as Daredevil. Whether he is twisting necks, slicing with knives, or shooting everything from pistols to industrial sniper rifles, if you need to kill one to 17 people, call Ben Affleck (Gone Girl) as Christian Wolff. On the other hand, I do not believe for a second Ben Affleck as an autistic math savant. Blessed with roughly the same mathematical skill set as his bro Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting, Christian Wolff is also the world’s most adept forensic accountant. If you’re money goes missing, Christian will find it.
I know Ben Affleck can play the hero. He held his own as Batman and for all of his ups and downs in his acting career, I don’t hear anybody mocking his turn as Daredevil. Whether he is twisting necks, slicing with knives, or shooting everything from pistols to industrial sniper rifles, if you need to kill one to 17 people, call Ben Affleck (Gone Girl) as Christian Wolff. On the other hand, I do not believe for a second Ben Affleck as an autistic math savant. Blessed with roughly the same mathematical skill set as his bro Matt Damon in Good Will Hunting, Christian Wolff is also the world’s most adept forensic accountant. If you’re money goes missing, Christian will find it.
Safely undercover as a strip mall tax return man, Christian moonlights for drug cartels, transnational terrorist syndicates, and every shady conglomerate in between. Choosing to play it safe for his next job, Christian dives into the the books of Living Robotics, a cutting edge prosthetics innovator. Run by Lamar Black and Rita Blackburn (John Lithgow (Love Is Strange) and Jean Smart), Christian sets up shop in their glass-walled conference room, pulls an all nighter, and in a pleasing montage, discovers how much of the firm’s profits subtly leaked out of the company. Who did it is a bit more nebulous.
Aided by the quirky, intrepid, and young ingenue Dana Cummings (Anna Kendrick, Pitch Perfect 2), Christian and Dana soon find themselves on the run from a different set of assassins, perhaps they stumbled a bit too close to the truth. This financial crime and cat and mouse escape is The Accountant’s main plot line but far from the only one as a few supporting episodes orbit interjecting themselves at convenient points. First, the feds.
Aided by the quirky, intrepid, and young ingenue Dana Cummings (Anna Kendrick, Pitch Perfect 2), Christian and Dana soon find themselves on the run from a different set of assassins, perhaps they stumbled a bit too close to the truth. This financial crime and cat and mouse escape is The Accountant’s main plot line but far from the only one as a few supporting episodes orbit interjecting themselves at convenient points. First, the feds.
Director Ray King (J.K. Simmons, Zootopia) is a treasury agent close to retirement and wants to close the book on the case that has haunted him for years. Blackmailing young analyst Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Star Trek Into Darkness) to do the grunt work and figure out who this mysterious accountant is, O’Connor and screenwriter Bill Dubuque position Ray as one of the wildcards who we are not sure will see the light or embrace the darkness. The other thread is Christian’s backstory mostly composed of his Army officer father (Robert C. Trevailer, Prisoners) who believes tough love and marital arts is the way to integrate Christian into society rather than steadfast therapy and counseling.
Dubuque’s screenplays sound like John Grisham thrillers: The Judge, The Accountant. What Dubuque slams home is that he can write first rate potboilers. 2014’s The Judge was a very enjoyable mystery pitting Downey Jr. against Duvall. Dubuque’s complex character, Christian Wolff, exudes plenty of autistic traits including lack of eye contact, the hysteria to finish tasks, and a fastidious attention to detail, everything from making sure his food on the plate does not touch each other to his regimented routines of self-therapy. However, I wonder if Affleck was truly the best choice here. There are no impediments in his performance, but he is too well known to play Christian. Audiences will not believe him as the Will Hunting character. He’s the muscle, not the sensitive brains.
The violence Christian employs is methodical and efficient. It is John Wick-like as when Christian is lucky enough to use a firearm, it is two shots to the cranium minus all the annoying brain splatter on the wall. Shot by Director of Photography Seamus McGarvey, who does not get the opportunity to go epic like he did on Atonement or experimental as he did on Anna Karenina, he shoots The Accountant with a skill slightly better than its material. I caught him going a bit too cute every now and then as when he plays with scenes between Affleck and Kendrick but even adroit cinematographers are saddled with sequences we have encountered a dozen times before such as when the lone hero attacks a secluded mansion taking out the henchmen one to two at a time. There is only so much originality to go around in such a familiar setting.
Be warned The Accountant is not John Wick in how much action there is to go around; however, be assured you should take the opportunity to lean back in your seat and revel in the intellectual chatter regrettably missing from most films this year. Using his place on the autism spectrum to his advantage in both numerical excellence and cold-blooded executions is a gimmick; yet, Christian Wolff is an intriguing character to follow and I won’t roll my eyes if a sequel ever finds it way in the next couple years. Saturating us with an overdose of backstory we don’t work for, that characters just sit down and explain to us, is only one of the very few criticisms for Dubuque’s script. Let the analysts figure out the history rather than handing it to the audience as a long speech; it packs far less punch when you do that. It’s almost as awkward as Ben Affleck staring at complex formulas with a knowing and understanding look on his face.
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