The Accountant- Film Review

The Accountant is enjoyable, and to avoid disappointment, you should know that despite the bohemian storytelling with a complexity of flashbacks and twists, the movie is winding its way towards a mundane, conventional, deflated payoff.
Mental-health advocates will be interested in the movie’s largely upbeat portrait of Asperger’s syndrome. The hero, Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck), rarely makes eye contact and has little in the way of vocal modulation or a natural ability to read non-verbal social cues. Christian does not have any observable friend despite the appearance of Dana Cummings (Anna Kendrick) which leads one into thinking the two will bring romance to the film. Dana’s appearance invites the possibility of a romantic connection with Christian, but the movie, remaining true to its severe, ultra-macho, deeply cynical attributes, does not allow it.
While Affleck’s character shows that people with autism are not lesser than others, he is also extremely violent making him an uncertain role model at best. Most of the violence is fairly over the top, with lots of fighting and shooting.
If you have a passion for mathematics, you will enjoy the movie as the antagonist, Affleck, stars as a mathematical genius, a cunning businessman, a ninja wizard, and a crack shot.
As a young child, Christopher’s mother and brother watched in dismay, while his father (a military man) said the boy just needs discipline, karate lessons that leave ugly bruises, and weapons training. The mother tearfully leaves the men to their own devices. J.K. Simmons, who plays a chief Treasury agent blackmails a young analyst (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) into tracking down “the Accountant,” a financial assistant to crime lords and rogue heads of state who is known only from blurry photos.
You need to be prepared to spent two full hours on the movie while taking into consideration that the entire back stories of the film are presumably left on the cutting-room floor of this overlong session that never arrives at a destination. The timeline of ‘The Accountant’ is so absolute that the subplots seem shuffled like the pieces of an unfinished puzzle.
However, working from a screenplay by Bill Dubuque, director, Gavin O’Connor builds worlds for all of his characters to inhabit. It is not a coincidence that the cast includes terrific performers and great character actors.
Christian, in particular comes with all kinds of routines and traits that are endlessly fascinating. He requires a moderate performance that Affleck handles well. The Accountant does not neglect any of the other characters as they each get several moments to come alive. However, it is too bad that the overall plot could not come up with something a tad fresher.