The Accountant surprisingly is a movie about, you guessed it an accountant. However, this is no ordinary accountant. This accountant uncooks the books for some of the biggest criminals on the planet. Christain Wolff has grown up with high functioning autism. Gifted with the skill of breaking down puzzles and rapid calculation allowing him to earn vast amounts of money. But his tough upbringing means this accountant, leads a double life, he is also a deadly assassin who is not to be messed with.
I know what you are thinking, yes this is complex and totally unnecessarily so. The result feels like multiple movies all clashing at once. Imagine blending The Big Short, Dare Devil, Leon and Good Will Hunting then throw them all together with a back story of a brutal family upbringing. Pull each of these sections apart and they do tend to work, the action side to the film is amazing. However, the other complex sides swing the story off balance so many times that it's quite a relief to reach the end of the film.
Don't get me wrong, this is actually quite a stylish film. Director Gavin O'Conner does a fantastic job with the ridiculous script. O'Conner has made some great movies in the past like Warrior but he really had his work cut out for him piecing together this jigsaw. The cast is great too, Ben Affleck does a great job playing Christian Wolff. Even though it does seem to be too close to Batman and Dare Devil. Anna Kendrick, J.K. Simmons (Palm Springs), Jeffrey Tambor and John Lithgow add some serious talent. But John Bernthal playing Wolff's super tough killer brother is a great example of how disjointed this whole thing is.
For me, this feels like an introduction to an Accountant 2 and 3. There are so many important directions the story takes that go nowhere. There needs to be one or two sequels to expand on these dead ends. Certainly, the interaction with J.K. Simmons character suggests that Christian Wolff will be applying his skills way into the future.
All in all, The Accountant is an entertaining action movie. If it is an introduction to a franchise it can be forgiven for being so unbalanced. It has to be said, it is great to show a character that empowers people with autism. However, I am not sure it is so great to make the character an extremely violent killer at the same time. See what you think? The Accountant is gaining heaps of traction on Netflix at the moment. Just beware that the details are as messy as the Jackson Pollock in the main characters trailer.
