The Accountant

ben-affleck-accountant
Those aren't erasable markers, Ben.

Having already played Batman, Ben Affleck now sets his sights on another vigilante superhero: The Accountant! Prepare for number- and bone-crunching justice!*

That’s not entirely a joke, either. In this tantalizing, mildly ludicrous action drama from director Gavin O’Connor (“Warrior”) and screenwriter Bill Dubuque (“The Judge”), Affleck plays Christian Wolff, a high-functioning autistic C.P.A. hired by a tech company to balance its books after a low-level analyst (Anna Kendrick) notices discrepancies.

Meanwhile, the Treasury Department (repped by J.K. Simmons) puts a new agent (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) on the trail of an underworld figure known only as The Accountant, who cooks books for criminal enterprises but also, uh, kills criminals. Could The Accountant be our accountant?

More meanwhile, a gunman (Jon Bernthal) is going around making threats to various parties involved in all of these financial dealings. There’s John Lithgow and Jean Smart as the brother-and-sister owners of the tech company, Andy Umberger as their untrustworthy C.F.O., and Jeffrey Tambor as an imprisoned crooked accountant.

Flashbacks to Christian’s early life with a strict military father and a silent brother shed light on his peculiarities — which go far beyond his autism — while other cryptic details (like a British woman’s voice giving Christian instructions over the phone) pique our interest as the story unfolds and all of these elements come together.

Our review of “The Accountant” from the Movie B.S. with Bayer and Snider podcast:

 

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Affleck’s portrayal of autism is a surface-level impersonation, to be sure. But the character and his quirks make for compelling entertainment — especially in the film’s second half, when numbers, bullets, and fists fly furiously. Surprisingly, I enjoyed this Jason Bourne-ish movie more than this year’s actual Jason Bourne movie.

*I stole this joke from Bayer. I regret nothing.

B (2 hrs., 8 min.; R, some harsh profanity, moderate violence.)