Plot
Christian Wolff is an accountant, who launders money for criminals and terrorists. He is also has a firm he works out of, as a way of putting on a “front” for the US Government.
He also happens to be a high functioning autistic, having a difficult past childhood with a no nonsense US Army Soldier for a father, and a mother who abandoned him and his brother in their youth.
When a robotics business hire him due to some irregularities with their accounts, Christian discovers $61m missing from their bottom line.
Soon he and the business’ other accountant Dana Cummings, find themselves the target of a ruthless assassin, clearly hired by the person who took the money.
Meanwhile Ray King, a director within the Treasury Dept is trying to discover who the mysterious “accountant” is, and hires Marybeth Medina, a junior agent with a criminal background to assist him.
Direction
Gavin O’Connor directs. This is the first film of his that I have come across, but in similar vein to such previously reviewed movies like the Nobody movies, Ballerina, Equalizer and of course John Wick – this too is action aplenty.
Cast
Ben Affleck plays Chris. He does a genuinely decent job playing the neurodivergeant Chris. His physical presence is intimidating at times, and is solid within the action scenes.
Anna Kendrick plays Dana. Although I enjoy her in most of her films, I felt she was underused here. This wasn’t a “Anna Kendrick” performance – it could have been played by anyone.
JK Simmons plays Ray King, who is trying to find out who the mysterious Accountant is. This is due to a ‘past meeting’ with him – that really doesn’t feel like it adds anything to the overall plot of the film. Cynthia Addai-Robinson plays Medina – who also adds very little to the film.
John Lythgow and Jean Smart play brother and sister Lamar and Rita Blackburn – who run a robotics company – and call on Chris to find missing funds within their company.
Jon Bernthal plays the ruthless assassin Braxton, who has been hired to ‘clean’ those who know about the stolen money.
Breakdown
Starting with an the aftermath of an exciting shoot out (where the camera cleverly does not show the identity of either the shooter – or the police officer who is first on scene (pay attention to this as it comes back in a ‘way’ throughout the film)…
Throughout the film we get a series of flashbacks that show the past history of the protagonist Chris Wolff, from his early youth – when he is first diagnosed with the ‘not well known’ condition of autism. He has a loving mother, and somewhat cold militant soldier father who believes he can ‘beat’ the autism out of him, we see the mother’s eventual departure – which angers Chris’ younger brother, Chris and brothers brutal training to become soldiers themselves, and the eventual death of their father in an accident that sees Chris sent to Prison. There he befriends a man named Francis (played by Jeffrey Tambor) where he learns how to “cook the books” and becomes a criminal accountant.
As a parent of a (profoundly) autistic son, I quite liked how they portrayed autism. Especially given some of the cast do a great job of showing how the spectrum is so grand, and different. He has order to his life, his home is meticulous – his cutlery drawer etc, even how he drives into his driveway. He finds ‘solace’ in the things his father taught him (shooting), as even though his dad was harsh, he was essentially his “person” which every autistic person needs.
I found his “self torture” fascinating, where he puts himself through ‘sensory overload’ by flooding his house with flashing lights (visual), extreme loud music (sound) and pressing a bar into his leg (feel) – three senses that autistic individuals struggle with.
The main story, which Chris investigates a business owned by Lythgow’s Lamar, and along with fellow accountant Dana, find that there is $61m been stolen – and then find themselves the target of assassin Braxton is “okay”, but there have been far better roles played by Kendrick. This doesn’t really have enough of her charm, and she has done drama very well in the past (Up in the Air/Stowaway).
The end reveal that it was indeed Lythgow’s Lamar who took the money, is a little underwhelming (especially given he ordered the murder of his own sister), and it is almost lost within the reveal that Braxton is the long lost brother of Chris (who’s been trying to find him for years!).
This comes after a pretty solid “John Wick” style shootout with Chris, vs all of Braxton’s men. These reveals happen almost simultaneously as King tells his story that he feels guilt because he was the one who imprisoned Francis – and then on his exit from prison is found and murdered by a mobster (who was in turn murdered by The Accountant, and Ray has been trying to find him ever since – and was the one who came into the aftermath of the shoot out at the very beginning (remember that??? Because I didn’t). This all felt too much, and less is always more sometimes.
Chris is oblivious to the investigation surrounding him by Ray – and truth be told this is one area of the film where I found the character of Ray and Medina rather pointless. I found they really don’t add anything of value or significance to the overall plot.
Overall
Good enough, with a genuinely solid performance by Affleck. But some either underused secondary characters (if you’re going to have Anna Kendrick in your film, let her shine!) or too many to really know what to do with fully (looking at you Ray and Medina).
Some good action sequences, and a rather obvious “twist” involving the revelation that the two men are brothers.
Followed by a sequel in 2025.
3.5/5
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