The Accountant, 2016.
Directed by Gavin O’Connor.
Starring Ben Affleck, Anna Kendrick, J.K. Simmons, Jon Bernthal, John Lithgow, and Jeffrey Tambor.
SYNOPSIS:
As a math savant uncooks the books for a new client, the Treasury Department closes in on his activities and the body count starts to rise.
Sometimes, too much going on in the script leads to a very muddled, disjointed mess of a movie, which is sadly the case with Gavin O’Connor’s (director of Warrior) latest offering The Accountant, which sees Ben Affleck as the titular accountant that also has highly functioning autism. He also is deadly lethal in close quarters combat and with high-powered firearms.
So basically, it’s Zack Snyder’s take on Batman all over again, just without the batsuit.
Joking aside, Ben Affleck isn’t the problem at all; he absolutely disappears into the role authentically portraying an autistic man complete with the introverted personality and noticeable social abnormalities. Affleck also gives Christian a robotic voice to further bring home just how inept he is at understanding things like sarcasm, and to make the character’s somewhat weird lines come across as entertaining deadpan humor. He’s expressionless, but still delivers a fantastic performance, which isn’t the easiest thing to do with a character this complex.
And while we are at it, it’s worth mentioning that The Accountant rounds out its talented cast with a number of reliable actors including Anna Kendrick, J.K. Simmons, Jon Bernthal, John Lithgow, and Jeffrey Tambor who all put in serviceable work. The problem is they are all given thinly written roles that doesn’t fully flesh out just exactly who they are or what they actually want. Jon Bernthal makes for a great contract killer villain, but good luck figuring out the purpose or the motivations of the character until you stretch your brain trying to figure it out over his opening scenes. This isn’t a stylistic decision either, but rather the film poorly introducing characters or explaining them properly. By the time the movie is far too complicated than it ever should be, it seriously starts dropping ridiculously long exposition scenes that are meant to tie up the loose ends thus far.
The Accountant works best when it is contrasting the brutally violent nature of the dirty work Christian does with his struggling abilities to function among society, not letting his condition get the best of him. These moments especially work as his friendship blossoms with a fellow accountant played by Anna Kendrick who also inadvertently gets put in danger. Thankfully, the movie never goes too far into making this a full-on romantic subplot. If the whole movie stuck more to the action genre while balanced out with the humor Christian’s interactions between himself and other people provides, there probably would be something really entertaining here.
Instead we got a bunch of nonsense about how J.K. Simmons is the Director of Treasury blackmailing another treasury agent into figuring out who the accountant is for his own personal reasons, along with a true villain that it as obvious as the sky being blue, and about 42 flashbacks of Christian’s childhood. The question “Do you like puzzles”often get asked a lot in The Accountant… well this movie is one overly elaborate puzzle where none of the pieces fit together.
It’s all a disappointing shame because we do have a legitimately intriguing protagonist that most definitely feels unique from the traditional hero label, not specifically referring just to the autism part but it definitely is a genius trait to give an assassin/bookkeeper. The title character is far more interesting than the movie; it’s as if no one bothered to say anything when the overall narrative got way too ambitious and all over the place. This is a twisty movie, but for example, the big reveal during the final shootout might be one of the silliest things I’ve seen in 2016. At least the combat is very bloody featuring plentiful headshots, and is well constructed.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder – Chief Film Critic of Flickering Myth. Check here for new reviews weekly, friend me on Facebook, follow my Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
Originally published October 15, 2016. Updated April 15, 2018.
