The Accountant
Starring Ben Stiller, Anna Kendrick
Directed by Gavin O’Connor
Shifting effortlessly from number-crunching to bone-crunching, Ben Affleck stars in The Accountant as an autistic math genius who also happens to work for various criminal organizations. Admittedly, the premise is wacky and the tone is sometimes wonky, but the flick is actually a decent little thriller wrapped in an intriguing character study, thanks to the lead star's commitment to the role and some rather snappy editing.
Accounting savant Christian Wolff (Affleck), on a break from the crime world, takes a job with a legitimate robotics company to investigate some major financial discrepancies discovered by an employee (Kendrick). As the mystery is unravelled and a conspiracy exposed, the body count starts to rise. Meanwhile, a Treasury Department investigator (JK Simmons) and his protégé (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) are hot on his trail. Adding to these narrative tangents are flashbacks to Christian’s troubled childhood dealing with his condition. These sequences, though heavy-handed, make for surprisingly strong depth and offer several notes of poignancy that ground an otherwise schlocky affair.
Affleck is certainly up to the task here, providing plenty of chiseled dramatic heft while effectively beating the living crap out of numerous baddies. Kendrick is also fun to watch as she delivers her deadpan lines. (Unfortunately, her potentially romantic part gets ignored halfway through the movie.)
The Accountant may be occasionally ridiculous (we won’t get into the eye-rolling twists) and the melodrama is even a tad comic at times, but beneath the flaws lies a refreshing story with lean pacing and a taut script.
