The Accountant is a quality, albeit straightforward, action film that has good actors and a story that keeps you interested throughout. The reveal of the villain pulling the strings of it all was a little transparent (I figured it out fairly early on) but, it doesn’t make you lose respect for the film. Just a typical action film plot point. The film is a pretty decent look at how childhood trauma and upbringing can shape who we become as adults and for an action film, did ok at examining the hardship of autism and how it can affect a family. I could see the underlying message of what those suffering from neurological disease can achieve may resonate with the growing number of people who know or love someone suffering from these ailments. The use of flashbacks to Christian Wolff’s (Ben Affleck) childhood experiences with his Army father were incorporated well into the overall plotline.
In a film with great, big name actors like Ben Affleck and Anna Kendrick, the actor that I came away most impressed with was Jon Bernthal, who is the clear standout to me despite the small amount of screen time he’s given. He’s magnetic in his turn as Braxton, the lead hitman on a private security force going around the world cleaning up his clients’ messes efficiently and without hesitation. His performance is the most convincing and strongest, and completely different from previous roles such as Joe Teague on TNT’s Mob City (where I first saw him), Brad in The Wolf of Wall Street, and The Punisher on Marvel’s Daredevil Netflix series. His star continues to rise at a steady clip. I liked the way that the movie played out Christian and Dana Cummings’ (Anna Kendrick) relationship. This movie did a good job avoiding tropes and/or turning them on their heads.
It was cool to see veteran actress Jean Smart of Designing Women fame in something big again as well as John Lithgow being his usual good acting self. JK Simmons was strong as always as a retiring Treasury agent looking to crack one more big case before retirement. But his incorporation into the plot was more than that typical action movie trope, he and Christian had met before and the reveal of this is an interesting, quality twist on who you think Christian is and what he is doing. This helps to separate The Accountant from being just another action movie. The twist ending was again, a little transparent and something I saw coming pretty early in the movie but, it was executed ok. It did however put a little spin on the third act clash between protagonist (Affleck) and antagonist (Bernthal) that gave the conflict more weight and subtext than is typical in an action flick. The final, smaller twist reveal (you’ll know it when you see it) was a surprise that made me smile and say “Oh shit” when it happened and a nice way to end the movie on a high note.
All in all, The Accountant is worth a look and something you won’t regret watching. Just a good movie to sit and eat some popcorn with.
Image: Warner Bros.
