The Accountant is a 2016 action-thriller
directed by Gavin O’Connor (notable for his films Warrior and Miracle) and
is the story of Christian “Chris” Wolff who is a forensic accountant/financial
consultant who does work for dangerous people and has a very particular set of
skills (to steal from another film) that make him lethal. This film stars Ben
Affleck, Anna Kendrick, Jon Bernthal, J.K. Simmons, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, and
John Lithgow. This is an extremely strong and intriguing film that is one of
the best action films of the year.
There
is a lot The Accountant does really
well but it primarily focuses on story and character development to its strong
benefit. Christian Wolff is a character who is on the spectrum of autism and
has other developmental issues that he struggles with. By drawing this
character in such a way and by having him go through a story with the intensity
and intrigue that this story does really tests the bounds of the character and
exposes him in a fascinating way. Ben Affleck also delivers a really impeccable
performance and successfully goes places with it he hasn’t really gone before.
He is
accompanied by a cavalcade of well-drawn and interesting side characters as
well. Anna Kendrick brings a lot of her personality into her character, Dana,
but what I thought was really neat was how much I believed she was an
accountant in her own right which was great to see. Jon Bernthal was also
incredibly magnetic throughout the film. He gets to be more vocal and have more
personality than something like his role of the Punisher which really works and
made him compelling to watch. He has the gravitas to go toe to toe with anyone
he’s on screen with and does so very well. J.K. Simmons also had a moment here
or there that were really
solidly presented as well.
The
story reaches beyond its performances in ways though by really making a point
about dealing with people with mental disabilities. I wasn’t expecting a thread
of that in this film but it was definitely there and really well delivered. To that
extent, I think Seth Lee who plays the younger version of Chris really brought
out his “A” game and allowed for this subplot about disability to be more
emotionally investing than it would have been otherwise.
The
last, and most obvious, strength of this film is the action. It is gripping,
intense, and massively entertaining. There are so many moments that are jaw
dropping and all of the real fighting and stunt-work made it all the better. The
styles, forms, and decisions of the fighters all made a lot of sense and showed
O’Connor’s deep knowledge of how to develop realistic fights between
characters. This film incorporates a lot of use of firearms as well which they
made equally compelling to the hand to hand combat and produced some truly
*pardon the language* badass moments to behold.
This
is a really strong film and doesn’t have a large number of negatives. There is
a plotline with Simmons and Addai-Robinson’s character with the government
tracking Chris that didn’t feel totally relevant to the drama going on.
Kendrick’s character was great in bringing personality and humor to the screen
but was underused in the film. The action, though awesome, has a lot of edits
in it that didn’t enhance my viewing experience of those sequences. There is
also one story beat that goes entirely unaddressed which felt like a weakness
to me. None of these flaws are fatal, but combined they do reduce my overall
enjoyment of the movie.
Despite
some flaws, this movie as a whole is extremely entertaining and one of the best
action films of the year. This will have audiences drawn from start to finish
and it manages to go places I definitely didn’t see it going. There is also one
particular part of this film (that I won’t spoil) that was far and away worth
the price of admission for me. Definitely go see this film!
Ryan’s Score:
8.5/10
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