It’s rare to describe a single film as both cute and stunningly
violent, but here we are talking about The Accountant, which
is weirdly adorable for a movie where so many people get shot in the head.
Directed by Gavin O’Connor (the underappreciated MMA flick
Warrior), working from a script by Bill “The
Judge” Dubuque, The Accountant tells the story of
Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck), a high-functioning autistic Midwest accountant. Oh
yeah, he also specializes in untangling the books for some of the most
dangerous people in the world—think terrorists, drug cartels, notorious crime
families, and the like. Yes, the premise is admittedly a stretch.
Convoluted and intentionally obtuse, and intercut with
flashbacks to Christian’s childhood, the thriller unfolds in three parallel arcs.
We follow Christian as he dives into the tangled finances of a new client, a legitimate
one this time to keep up appearances; a pair of Treasury Department agents—one
a rookie, Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson), one a vet, Raymond King
(J.K. Simmons)—with their own motivations for tracking down this mysterious “Accountant”;
and a ruthless private security contractor, Braxton (John Bernthal), who sells
his services to the highest bidder.
As so often happens when a movie has this many threads,
certain ones take precedence while others fade into the background. Christian’s
rightly takes center stage. A top-rate Affleck brings Christian and his
peculiarities vividly to life in a way that’s never cloying or exploitative—it’s
never super cool, and I’m not sure how much I want to dig into his condition,
but considering the set up is very B-grade thriller, it’s more respectful than
one might expect. He struggles with social cues and interaction, but has
learned to compensate and function. O’Connor even manages to charge a montage
that’s literally nothing more than Christian sorting through endless files and
writing numbers on whiteboards, with a propulsive energy.
Bernthal’s smart-aleck charisma carries his circling
storyline, which is engaging and momentary enough—though the true nature of his
role becomes readily apparent far too soon. But it’s with the Treasury agents
where the biggest problems lie. Not only does The Accountant
push this narrative to the side for great stretches—to the point where it’s
easy to forget about—when the action does pop up, it’s not particularly
compelling. The bulk of it involves Medina searching through records—there’s a
scene where she and an analyst simply pull up financial records on a computer
in a dark cubicle, which is exactly as riveting as that sounds. While O’Connor
infuses Christian’s numbers scenes with energy, that’s not the case here, and these
moments fall brutally flat. What drives the Feds remains fuzzy and nebulous. And
even when the script reveals their motivation, it’s jumbled, not very
convincing, and this is where The Accountant becomes just an
average thriller full of overly expository dialogue.
While some these elements may work on their own, they don’t
always mesh together well in a big-picture sense, and The
Accountant suffers from an identity crisis. A twisty, espionage-esque
thriller butts up against solid action scenes mixed with unique character study
and, perhaps most unexpectedly, what should have been a shoehorned-in romantic
angle that surprisingly doesn’t suck.
Anna Kendrick plays Dana Cummings, an eager,
socially-awkward-in-her-own-way junior accountant at Christian’s legit job, who
becomes embroiled in his life. The two discover they’re more alike than they
initially think and form a burgeoning connection. Completely incongruous with the
rest of the movie—much more meet-cute romantic comedy than taut thriller—against
all odds, this aside aside works. Cast away when the main narrative builds
towards the climax, the awkward interactions illuminate another side of
Christian and provide an unexpected level of humor and heart. A testament to
the charm and enthusiasm of both Kendrick and Affleck, this could have gone so, so wrong in so
many ways, but defies the odds and this is where the film becomes most
engaging.
The Accountant works best when it
explores Christian and his attempts to cope with emotion and interaction. The
surrounding thriller, however, reigns in anything that makes the film unique
and never rises above moderately clever procedural pulp and generic action
posturing—it’s not bad, it’s just not anything noteworthy. As unfocused and drastically overlong as the narrative becomes, it wraps up too clean and tidy, and wholly
unsatisfying. Like Christian with a puzzle, every piece fits neatly in place,
every question has a concrete answer, and a convenient flashlight shines into
every shadowy corner. [Grade: B-]
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