Released in 2016, The Accountant is a fun action thriller by director Gavin O’Connor. It is one of the best performances from Ben Affleck, but it is a movie that often gets overlooked when people talk about his career. I watched this again recently for the first time since it was released and I still think that it is a solid action movie.
How to Download The Accountant
The Accountant was released on October 14, 2016. You can download or stream the film from a digital platform. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and make your choice.
The Movie Review
Ben Affleck plays a guy called Christian Wolf. Christian was raised alongside his brother by his father and he was taught martial arts and basically how to survive. What makes Christian such an interesting character is that he has autism, but his autism helps him be a fantastic accountant.
Unique Character Development in The Accountant
The twist here is that he uses these skills that he has to be an accountant for some very dangerous people to make sure their laundered money is taken care of. As well as being an accountant, Christian is also an absolute badass on a John Wick/Jason Bourne-type level when it comes to getting into fights!
Exploring the Plot Twists
A company called, Living Robotics has noticed some strange stuff with their books and Christian is called in to take a look. Working for this company is a woman called Dana (Anna Kendrick), she first discovered these issues and she is tasked with working with Christian. The two hit it off and the way Ben Affleck plays this is just fantastic and so fascinating to watch. Dana tries to get to know him better, but his autism makes it hard for him.
Action and Suspense
Well, as you would expect, there is more going on here than you would expect and before long, Christian is in a fight for his life and there are people that want to bring him down. One thing I will say that I did not notice the first time I watched this is that there is a lot of stuff going on here, perhaps too much where it feels like there are multiple subplots going on at the same time.
Critiquing the Subplots
Hey, the action is great, the stuff with Ben Affleck and Anna Kendrick is very captivating to watch. However, one of the subplots is about a character played by J.K Simmons who has been using the info given to him by Christian while working for the government and I wish they dived into this more as I think there was a bigger story to tell here.
Final Thoughts
I would not say that this is something that makes the movie hard to follow, but it more kind of makes you wish that they just focused on one thing rather than the multiple things that Christian has to deal with. Although, I guess you could argue that him having to deal with multiple issues highlights his autism and also allows him to be a badass too.
If you had asked me before I rewatched The Accountant my thoughts, I would have said it was great. However, now I think that it is good, but not great. It is still worth watching and Ben Affleck gives a tremendous performance here, he truly gives it all to this role and it is great to watch. It has some awesome action scenes and some interesting characters, but there is perhaps just a tad too much going on for its own good.
