The Accountant, now available on Blu-ray, 4K Blu, DVD, and VOD, is a puzzle movie, and how you feel about the film will most likely depend on just how skillfully you think director Gavin O’Connor and writer Bill Dubuque did at laying out the pieces and placing them in order.
The Accountant also doubles as a stealth franchise launcher for Ben Affleck, he of the Animal Crackers. If you had told me at the beginning of the year that I would be more eager to see Affleck reprise his role as an autistic, homicidally gifted math genius instead of Batman, well, I just never would have believed. Then again, I also would have laughed in your face over the idea of Donald Trump getting elected but here we fucking are.
Affleck plays Christian Wolff, a forensic accountant for some of the shadiest people on earth, using his mental abilities to uncook years of crooked books, and his John Wick-ian headshot abilities to stay alive when said shady folks send people after him.
As the film kicks off, Wolff takes an above-board job to examine the finances of tech company with some money missing, partnering with the young in-house accountant (Anna Kendrick) who discovered the problem. They maybe find something they shouldn’t have, burly dudes with guns start showing up, and Wolff needs to get to the bottom of the mess before things go even more sideways.
This is straight-ahead thriller stuff, but O’Connor and Dubuque pepper the sidelines with mysterious figures and agendas that keep things cloudy. J.K. Simmons plays the head of Financial Crimes division of the Treasury, and he presses an agent played by Cynthia Addai-Robinson (Arrow’s Amanda Waller) into service to track down the mysterious Wolff. Jon Bernthal cackles from the margins as an assassin on the prowl, Jean Smart and John Lithgow pop up as heads of the robotics company that hired Wolff, as well as small turns by Jeffery Tambor and Alison Wright, Poor Martha from The Americans, as figures in Wolff’s orbit.
Also peppered throughout the film are flashbacks to Wolff’s childhood traveling the world with his Special Forces father (Robert C. Treveiler) who refused counseling and therapy in favor of training his son into a living weapon.
That’s a lot of spinning plates, but this is Affleck’s movie and it lives or dies with him. The “Movie Star” thing has not always worked out for Affleck, with his best turns coming when he takes a more character actor approach, like in Extract or that movie where his bullet-ridden corpse gets fondled by Chris Pine which, yes, is a real thing that exists. Fortunately, this is one of those turns that remind you why people kept giving Affleck shot, even in the lean years. Taking on the role of a differently abled person is a massive gamble in a post “Full Retard” era, but Affleck never reduces to playing schtick or ham. Wolff may be quiet and withdrawn, but he is always thinking and feeling, and Affleck does strong work representing that vulnerability that his character can’t express verbally.
O’Connor and cinematographer Seamus McGarvey make great use of Affleck’s post-Batman bulk, letting him dominate the frame and blaze through the action scenes like a rampaging bear. A rampaging bear… with… guns. It’s an imperfect metaphor. Here again, Affleck acquits himself nicely, looking at home with the post-Raid silat fight scenes and the bombastic gun battles. There’s nothing especially groundbreaking about the film’s action, but it’s nice to see old-fashioned, clean action choreography and editing. There’s no shakeycam, no hyper-close-ups and fragmented editing, and the small-scale level of the action and story are a refreshing change of pace from the cosmic fuckery of most blockbusters these days.
It’s a big cast, and only a few seem to get as much time as they maybe merit. Bernthal is a hoot as a chatty assassin, getting to display a kind of charisma that isn’t often put to work now that he’s The Punisher and spends most of his days scowling while stabbing people (which he is also great at). Kendrick, meanwhile, is given the definition of a thankless role, but she manages to inject humor and humanity, seemingly through sheer force of will, and makes an impression anyway.
For much of the cast, though, the real meat of their performances has to wait until the tail end of the film when all the cards start being laid out. Make no mistake, The Accountant is a twist movie, and it aims to trip you up and pull the rug out from under you multiple times before it’s through.
Much (most) of the eventual reveals are ludicrous on the face of themselves, but to its credit, The Accountant plays all of this completely straight. Your overall opinion will most likely depend on whether or not you buy what this thing is selling (I’ve seen the film with two of my brothers. For one of them, a big twist at the end sealed the deal for how much he loved the film. My other brother stood up from my couch and said he wanted to go home).
I will say, though, that The Accountant scratches the pulp-loving itch that no one besides Shane Black seems interested in creating these days. In its own way, it’s as much a throwback as a self-consciously old school flick like Jack Reacher or Drive. The Accountant establishes its hero, lays out his methods, style, and particular code of honor, puts him through a ringer and then sends him off to go find a new adventure. Like Travis McGee or the Continental Op, it’s an endlessly repeatable formula that cold chug along for as long as Affleck is willing.
And I hope he does come back. I’ve seen the film a couple times now and The Accountant is just a steady, well-crafted thriller that hits the beats it needs to hit with confidence and aplomb. So here’s hoping Affleck finds time to take a break from the Bat-cave and bust out the pocket protector one more time or two.
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The Accountant – [4K UHD Blu] | [Blu-ray] |[DVD] | [Instant]