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MOVIE REVIEW: The Accountant

Garth Cremona (RIP)

Ben Affleck stars as accountant who is on the autistic spectrum that deals for all types of clients, both legitimate and the illegal, who is thrown into a situation created when one of his clients tries to so some stock market shenanigans. Starring Ben Affleck, JK Simmons, Anna Kendrick, and Jon Bernthal.

I’ve got to admit that I admire Ben Affleck for how he’s turn his career around. I was there when Gigli, Paycheck, and Surviving Christmas came out, I went on opening day to all those, and thought that this man was ruining his career. Then he started to pay attention, or at least that’s what it felt like, and now he’s Batman. Automatically I love him now. I have to say that this film is the best performance that I’ve ever seen from him. It’s so on the nail that I can see why some of my fellow critics are having a hard time liking this film.

The Accountant takes us through the life of Christian Wolf (Affleck), his Brother, and the life they had with their father after their mother ran out on them. Christian is Autistic and the brutal and laser focused manner in which his father raised him turns him into someone who still endures all the challenges that Autistic Adults face but with assassin style training. The film brings us into his life at a time where he trying to keep one step ahead of the Treasury Department led by JK Simmons, and going into a bionics company to try find where over 60 million dollars has gone. The head of that company is John Lithgow.

JK Simmons, who’ll play Commissioner Gordon in the Justice League movie next year, is always watchable, and here he’s fine. The film belongs to Afflecks character though and watching this math wizard work and how he recognises the patterns in numbers is just wonderful. Anna Kendrick is just as good as ever and it’s nice to see her doing something other than the dumb comedies that we’ve gotten over the last year. Jon Bernthal, aka The Punisher, plays a gun for hire that will sort out your troubles for you without questions asked. This character is blunt and to the point while adding a little creepy to the film and a few laughs. The film has probably too many stops due to the amount of flashbacks they need to make the present day story plausible to our minds. Not that they are corny or badly done, but every time we see a flashback we’re just taken out of the story we want to see, they could have had more of the back story of these characters sewn together in order to make a better flow come from this tap. Also there is a reveal near the end of the film that you kind of guess through the midway section of the film, but hope that you are wrong about, but you are not.

The Accountant is a good film, you’ll go see it with a date, or some friends, and enjoy the hell out of it. I think another problem that people have now is that they expect everything that Affleck to be attached to be like Argo or Batman, there will be no middle ground for some people. This is Ben starring in a well-directed, written, and performed piece that is just meant to entertain. There is a feeling that some person in the Warner TV division is going to suggest that they turn this into a show on the CW, but I hope that never happens. It should be taken for what it is, a good film, not amazing, but good. With a little re-editing of the film it could easily be amazing. It did remind me of a 1990’s pilot for a TV show though, and with the amount of flashbacks, that just brought the score down. This is worth paying into the cinema to watch. 3.5/5

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Director: Gavin O’Connor
Writer: Bill Dubuque
Stars: Ben Affleck, Anna Kendrick, J.K. Simmons

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Garth Cremona (RIP)
Comic book creator and movie reviewer. You can find out more at www.dublinwriter.com
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