The Accountant (2016)

Genres

Action | Crime | Drama | Thriller

Director

Gavin O'Connor

Country

USA

Cast

Ben Affleck, Anna Kendrick, J.K. Simmons, Jon Bernthal, Seth Lee, Jake Presley, Jeffrey Tambor, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, John Lithgow, Jean Smart, Andy Umberger, Alison Wright, Jeffrey Dawson

Storyline

As freelance accountant Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck) uncooks the book of a robotics company, the Treasury Department starts to close in and the body count starts to rise.

Opinion

I didn't care much for "The Accountant" when it came out for two reasons, Ben Affleck and Gavin O'Connor. I'm not a fan of the first, and I've never really enjoyed the movies made by the latter, so I passed it. But then I've heard good things about it and decided to watch it, you know, to find out if it actually was that good. And it was. Sure, it isn't the most clever action thriller made, but it certainly is a nice, entertaining and engaging addition to the genre. And there's not even Liam Neeson nor Keanu Reeves in it.

Although it doesn't bring anything new to the table, it's indeed plenty of films about autistic geniuses - I hope that wasn't insensitive to say -, this film successfully combines a story of such a delicate matter to the typical still solid action-thriller plot that manages to deliver thrills and multiple twists.

However, while I don't really have any complaint on the plot about illness in young children and how people, both kids and adults, copy with it, the other side of the story could have been developed a little better. As the film starts, Christian Wolff, the accountant, is a man doing business with the wrong people and he's portrayed as a bad guy; later on, he suddenly becomes the good guy as if he never worked for criminals and that tiny robotics company thing put his life in danger. And the character of Anna Kendricks is pretty pointless and doesn't add anything to the story.

Still, for the first time in my short life, I'm happy with the work of Gavin O'Connor. The story gets a little complicated at some point, but he handled it very well. I have to say that he spent too much time in the past via flashbacks which shortened the time to explain a little better what was going on in the present, but those flashbacks made the film more intriguing. Also, the film switches from more quite moments to the action sequences smoothly.

On the other hand, there's the acting, quite mediocre. Ben Affleck's is just a poor attempt at playing the same character his friend Matt Damon played in "Good Will Hunting" only with some fighting skills, and Anna Kendricks has nothing to do because of the poor character she is given. But there's still J.K. Simmons, in spite of his not-so-brilliant side-plot he gives his usual well-done performance. And Jon Bernthal doesn't touch his hair every five seconds, I'd say that's a win.