The Accountant

US Poster: Look he is eating lunch

European Poster: A little bit different!

Plot: Underworld accountant Christian Wolfe (Ben Affleck) takes a legit job to investigate an irregularity at Living Robotics, a Tech Start-up getting ready to IPO. Christian works with the firm's accountant, Dana (Anna Kendrick), and solves the problem in 2-3 days because he is that good. Turns out the owners don't want the fraud on their books to get out, so they hire hitmen to kill Christian and Dana. Now, we see his other side where he fires high powered sniper rifles and practices exotic mental and pain-conditioning exercises every night. When the hitmen come Christian has surprisingly prepared, and then he drives off to save Dana.

Meanwhile FBI director Ray King (JK Simmons) backmails analyst Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robbinson) into investigating the unknown (to them) underworld accountant. Marybeth works day and night searching, but eventually tracks down his current alias and apartment.

The Accountant concludes with superhero action as Christian chases down the evildoers followed by a twist at the end.  [imdb]    [photos]

Review: The Accountant is a thriller with a high body count -- nothing like The Big Short. The first two thirds of the movie are great. I loved the character's backstory and I loved the problem solving aspect of the accounting problem. It's fascinating how Christian hid his tracks, and how he lives with his Asperger's. Everything changes when Christian goes from defense to offense 2/3 of way through; the movie dumbs down and our clever accountant becomes another Ethan Hunt.

The character of the Accountant is deep and interesting to learn about. It combines an Asperger-type dedication to order in the form of financial accounting with a rigid discipline for safety, security and weapons. We see how his father and his teachers tried to help him, and the unusual childhood he had. There is a bit about how Asperger people can cope with their condition.

Anna Kendrick's character, Dana, has a fairly small role, but she does a nice job with it. Her facial acting has so much expression here just like she did in Up in the Air.

There is a separate story with the FBI. Director King blackmails Marybeth into the taking case, as a device to explain her backstory and make us sympathize with her. There is a whole term paper in the identity of FBI analyst Marybeth Medina. She is not just any super high-achieving, striving, young FBI agent, but also an Hispanic ex-con, add to that that actress Addai-Robinson is a black, born in England with a fine-arts background. She starts out idealistic, and we see that by the end, she is lying to the press -- just like Director King does.

In summary, the characters are powerful and well-drawn. This plot could easily have been a prestige television series, where it would have had time to play out its potential.

Cast: Ben Affleck, Anna Kendrick, JK Simmons, Cynthia Addai-Robbinson, 

Directed by: Gavin O'Conner

Written by: Bill Dubuque

The Music: Jazz by Mark Isham; pretty good, not very noticeable during most of the movie. 

The Visuals: Solid special effects. I liked the art direction of the numbers in the conference room. 

Rating: 2.5 stars: I really liked the characters and the acting was good. On the other hand, the story is just a story without any social or human message. It was fun-to-watch in parts, but the shooting got old. Not so fond of the end either. 

 

More: The scenes where he plays hard rock and beats his shins are Thai martial arts. They are to deaden the nerves of the shin. I don't recall fights involving the shins, but perhaps I'd notice if I saw the movie again. The flashing lights and music were intended to desensitize him to his Asperger-like aversion to stimulus.

Even More: Director O'Conner is open to a sequel. I'd like to see a mini-series.


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