Turns out Batman is John Nash, who knew? The Accountant is Ben Affleck’s attempt to stay busy in between Caped Crusadering. One the one hand, an accountant with elite tactical skills is crazy enough to be fun. The hard part is how to explain it, and maybe the movie would be better trying to just ignore the explanation.
Christian Wolff (Affleck) is somewhere on the autism spectrum (though the movie doesn’t diagnose him). However, Wolff and his brother were raised by a hard nosed father to be self sufficient and physically prepared by the time they became adults. Wolff lives in suburban Chicago as an accountant in a mini-mall, but secretly is one of the best known accountants globally, in particular for less than legal business practices. He’s hired by Lamar Black (John Lithgow), who runs his own robotics company, to figure out if someone’s cooking his books like his partners Rita Blackburn (Jean Smart) or Ed Chilton (Andy Umberger). Wolff is aided by the company’s accountant Dana Cummings (Anna Kendrick), who initially suspected something was up. Meanwhile, Wolff’s practices take him on a collision course with hitman Brax (Jon Bernthal) and Treasury agents Ray King (JK Simmons) and Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson).
My worry was that The Accountant looked ready to take itself VERY seriously. However, Gavin O’Connor works well with writer Bill Dubuque to make this movie as stupidly fun as its premise is. Wolff’s serious nature is used to undercut most of the scenes where he tries to connect with people, to consistently funny effect. What’s also fun is that Wolff’s foil is charismatic and funny by himself. Brax tries to be very serious when he says his threats, and people will laugh at him or Brax himself will immediately apologize for his threats, an opposite situation but equally funny, as Isaac Newton theorized. These interactions are flanked by just a batshit (pun intended) set of skills Wolff continues to showcase. I imagine so many accountants giddy seeing someone in their profession with advanced skills in weaponry and martial arts as well as money laundering. This narrative feels more like a superhero story than an action movie at times, and The Accountant benefits greatly because of it.
Until it tries to explain itself. There are two explanations in the movie: one giant monologue from JK Simmons, one voiceover at the end. The monologue STOPS the movie for 30 minutes to tell us the entire story. Two things about that. 1) This monologue exists to justify JK Simmons and Cynthia Addai-Robinson’s presence in the movie; they disappear from the plot after that, meaning their characters were essentially pointless. 2) The explanation is ridiculously convoluted and adds NOTHING to Wolff’s story. After the monologue ends, you will either sit there and let the explanation drive you crazy, or (I did this) let the funness of the non-Treasury agent part of the movie make you ignore the explanation. I wouldn’t fault you for either response. The final voiceover has a reveal so impossible that I just lumped that in with the nonsense The Accountant was already peddling, but throwing something at the screen might also be an acceptable response. In general telling the audience something instead of showing them is never smart for a movie, and The Accountant will be a shining example of the stupidity of that choice.
I will say though, The Accountant is stupid fun. As serious Oscar season barrels down upon us, a refreshing piece of movie trash is more welcome than normal. And Ben Affleck and Anna Kendrick will make you think about that inevitable Dark Knight/Pitch Perfect crossover that should happen yesterday.