Plot
Following the murder of Ray King, Marybeth Medina – now the Deputy Director of FinCen enlists Chris Wolf’s help with his ‘last’ mission.
The mission, finding a missing family – and the investigations into their disappearance run deep with human trafficking, tax fraud, and much much worse.
Direction
Director of the first film, Gavin O’Connor returns to direct. Much like the first film it is action aplenty, with plenty of gunfire at times.
Cast
Returning from the first film are of course
Ben Affleck as Chris Wolff, the autistic accountant. This seems less about his struggles this time around, and his ‘personality’ and ‘abilities’ come through more. He is still good, but the first film was an infinitely better performance.
Jon Bernthal returns as Braxton, who hasn’t seen his big brother since the events of the first film. I liked his arc of wanting a dog (despite being a cat person).
Cynthia Addai Robinson plays Medina – who gets way more to do this time around. While the first film, I found her character almost redundant, here she is one of the most important parts of the film. A big improvement!
JK Simmons has a small role at the start of the film, returning as King. His characters’ death at the start of the film is the foundation of what transpires throughout.
Allison Robertson and Alison Wright also return as Justine (and the voice of Justine).
New cast member that gets plenty to do is Daniella Pineda as Anais – the female assassin who is deeply connected to the family King was trying to find.
Can anyone out there help me out? I’m trying to think of another movie character that Anais reminds me of? Did she make you out there think of anyone???
Breakdown
While at no point throughout watching this was I overly bored, unfortunately it wasn’t as solid as the first film. From the opening, where we get a group/gang following a woman – who we then discover is named Anais. She meets with Ray King (JK Simmons returning from the first film). He wants her help with an old mission of his now he’s retired… finding a missing family from eight years ago.
He is swiftly killed by the gang following her (but not before cleverly ‘calling’ for help from The Accountant he tailed years ago). This brings his old protege MaryBeth Medina – now in the role he held in the first film. She then uses her ‘wits’ to get Chris Wolff’s assistance on discovering why Ray was murdered, and where the family is.
The film then has an overly lengthy run time of 2+ hrs where they try to work out where the missing family is, and why exactly the gang was after Ray (and Anais). It is all slightly convoluted and cliche (the missing mum is actually Anais).
As well as the first film handled the way ‘special needs’ and Autism awareness, I felt this one took a step back. While Chris was all about giving himself sensory overloads in the first film, all of that is forgotten, and instead Chris is “just quirky” in this film (falsifying the dating apps, being awkward around people etc). Then there is the ‘being there’ for the autistic child of Anais who has been seemingly missing for years.
There are some slightly comical moments in the film, mostly from Bernthal’s Braxton in some of his scenes while in Germany (his adopting a dog, and then his ‘not interrogating the Wizard of Oz loving prostitute) His revelation that he’s a cat person is fun too (as a cat lover myself). I didn’t love the fact that Chris and Braxton hadn’t seen each other since the first first film. It took away from Chris’ growth from the first film. This seems fixed by the movies end however. If a 3rd film occurs, I hope they don’t put them back to square one.
The “big bad” Burke isn’t really that intimidating, and the conflict is more with him and Anais, and even though she does some ‘bad’ things throughout (like the brutal fight between herself and Medina). The ‘twist’ that she is actually the missing mother that King was trying to find wasn’t all that shocking
Overall
Far from a bad film by any means, but is more of an action/investigation film than the first film.
Affleck is good, but his Wolff is “less” autistic here, and is more quirky than he was in the first film (although he gets some fun moments like the online dating and then line dancing). Bernthal is fun too.
I really liked the character of Anais (and if anyone has any idea of what other movie character she reminds me of, let me know!)
3.5/5
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