MOVIE REVIEW: THE ACCOUNTANT
Director:
Gavin O’Connor
Cast:
Ben Affleck, Anna Kendrick, J.K. Simmons
Ben Affleck is back on the big screen, moving into action thriller territory that his buddy Matt Damon usually occupies with the Jason Bourne movies. Here Affleck plays Christian Wolff, a quiet, unassuming man who’s an Accountant, and a genius with numbers, but displays social behavioral and mental issues, which cause him to stick with a set schedule for everything. He’s also a man with many secrets, one being he doesn’t stay in one place for long, another is that he’s an expert in weapons and combat.
J.K Simmons play an agent at the Treasury Department who becomes aware of an accountant that happens to do business with a lot unsavory characters around the world, and he recruits a new agent …played by Cynthia Addai Robinson, to now take point and be in charge of bringing him in. Her investigation has to be kept off the books.
Wolff gets hired by a wealthy robotics company to go through their finances and see if he can figure out where there’s a discrepancy with the numbers. He’s introduced to Dana, played with usual amount of plucky charm by Anna Kendrick. She’s from the accounting department and is the first to discover the discrepancy.
Soon, for unknown reasons, there are forces from all over coming after Wolff, and he has to choose whether it’s time for “Fight or Flight”.
This is a movie that may actually require repeat viewings. The story unfolds like a puzzle that these characters are trying to solve. Some of it is extremely non-linear to emphasize the importance of certain moments. I don’t want to give anything away, but i will say this is an engrossing story with unique themes going on within it. All the performances are great, especially Ben Affleck and J.K. Simmons. They knock it out of the park! Jon Bernthal was also good, and I really wanted more scenes with him.
This one is a solid crowd pleaser with some cool “John Wick” style gunplay. The only quibble I have is the ending could have been edited a bit more tightly, but that’s just me. A solid, entertaining action movie!
Grade: 4 out of 5
-Markellus
