The Accountant
The Accountant
Can a movie be all things to all people? The latest action-drama from director Gavin O’Connor ( Warrior, Pride and Glory) certainly tries. Its messy screenplay from Bill Dubuque combines estranged-family dynamics, an autism public service announcement, a Treasury Department police procedural, a prison drama, Bourne-type brutality and accounts receivable.
There’s even a moment where the title character, an autistic math savant played by Ben Affleck, tells Anna Kendrick: “I have difficulty socializing with other people — even though I want to.” It’s the film’s most moving moment, but as she moves closer to him, one disgruntled male voice at a recent promotional screening could be heard muttering: “Chick flick.”
It’s not, really. Or rather, it’s so many things that trying to define it is an exercise in futility. Affleck’s character, Christian Wolff, provides accounting services for some of the world’s richest and most nefarious criminals, but he’s not above helping an impoverished farmer who wanders into his storefront office looking for tax advice.
He’s also not afraid of violence. You’ve heard that the pen is mightier than the sword? For Wolff, they’re equally effective; red ink and blood spill in equal measures. In one scene he brings a belt to a knife fight and still emerges victorious.
The rambling storyline backs into the fact that Treasury boss Ray King (J.K. Simmons) is trying to track down the identity of the mysterious accountant. He enlists the aid of analyst Marybeth Medina ( Cynthia Addai- Robinson), who starts an investigation with little to go on but a garbled recording of the time the accountant took down nine members of the Gambino crime family.
Meanwhile, Wolff has been hired by a robotics entrepreneur ( John Lithgow) to look into an unexplained cash leak in his business, first noticed by one of his staff ( Kendrick). And an urbane hitman ( Jon Bernthal) is telling investor Simon Dewey ( Alex Collins) to stop spreading rumours about his client’s company. Oh, and we also have a backstory of the accountant’s martial- arts- obsessed father ( Robert C. Treveiler), and another with his prison mentor (Jeffrey Tambor).
With so many parallel story- lines, figuring out and/or waiting to learn how they connect should be nail-biting fun.
There’s some of that in The Accountant, and other times when the narrative gets bogged down in its own cleverness.
The 128- minute running time doesn’t help. What does is the unexpected snippets of humour scattered throughout the proceedings — when, for instance, Kendrick’s character proves to be more resourceful than your typical damsel in distress. Or when Wolff is revealed to own a mint- condition copy of Action Comics # 1, which introduced the Man of Steel. Batman vs. Superman indeed!
Affleck also does great work as the accountant, somehow imbuing his dead- eyed character with just enough emotional resonance to be relatable.
But this kind of character goodwill is offset by a too-long, too-convoluted conclusion to the story.
Does the film ultimately add up to good entertainment? I leave you with the wisdom of former accountant Bob Newhart: “My theory of accounting was that as long as you got within two or three bucks of it, you were all right.” If you’re OK with that kind of untidiness, The Accountant should prove more of an asset than a liability. ΩΩ½
The Accountant opens across Canada on Oct. 14.
YOU’VE HEARD THAT THE PEN IS MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD?