THE
ACCOUNTANT 2016, R, 128 mins. Ben Affleck as Chris / J.K. Simmons as Ray King / Cynthia Addai-Robinson as Marybeth Medina / Robert C. Treveiler as Young Chris' Father / John Lithgow as Lamar Black / Anna Kendrick as Dana / Jeffrey Tambor as Francis Silverberg / Jon Bernthal as Brax Directed by Gavin O'Connor / Written by Bill Dubuque |
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Yet, O'Connor
brings his characteristic stalwart and precise direction to the material
(he previously made the greatly underrated western JANE
GOT A GUN as well as two terrific sports dramas in WARRIOR
and MIRACLE) that helps to dramatically
anchor and ground the film when it could have derailed into wanton
preposterousness. That, and
we have a remarkably subtle, committed, and effectively modulated lead
performance by Ben Affleck as the titular character that's afforded
uncommon and highly compelling depth as far as these genre pictures go.
With a more-than-competent filmmaker/actor dynamic, THE ACCOUNTANT
actually makes for an intriguingly respectful case study for those that
are afflicted with autism, and the film never uses it as a
sensationalistic plot device.
Affleck plays
Christian, who as a young lad was diagnosed with High Functioning Autism
that his mother wanted to treat using the proper therapy channels, but his
aggressively militaristic father would have none of that and instead opted
to use what he felt was a more pragmatic approach to curtailing his son's
condition using "experience"...and underground training that
only stealthy assassins would seem to require.
Flashforward to the present and Christian has become a fairly well
adjusted (as much as his childhood conditioning has allowed him) adult
with his own accounting firm that caters to the daily needs of those that
require his rather brilliant mathematical and analytical skills to ensure
that they don't have to pay the government anything they don't have to.
Beyond work, Christian leads a life of solitude and habitual
rituals to keep his autism in check...but he also has some darker secrets,
like the fact that he's taken on some very dangerous criminal clients in
the past and present as a cooker of their books, to which he's paid for
his services in highly unusual, but untraceable ways (his secret base of
operations contains an original Jackson Pollock and Golden Age comic
books). His clandestine
work catches the eyes of the Treasury Department's Director Ray King (J.K. Simmons,
soon to be playing Commission Gordon to Affleck's Batman in the upcoming
JUSTICE LEAGUE) and his newest recruit Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson),
and the pair try to piece a series of labyrinthine clues together to
discover the real identity of this "accountant" and where he can
be located. Meanwhile,
Christian takes a job at a robotics development firm led by its tycoon
founder Lamar (John Lithgow), who's looking at the firm's books alongside their
CPA Dana (Anna Kendrick). As
Christian digs deeper he discovers a horrible web of lies and deceit
within the company's numbers, and when Dana becomes the target of
assassination he springs to action to defend and protect her while he gets
answers. She's predictably
startled be the uncovering of Christian's real day job, but nevertheless
works with him to trace her company's corruption.
While this occurs, the Treasure Department starts bearing down hard
on Christian, not to mention that he becomes embroiled with Brax (Jon
Bernthal, who recently played The Punisher on Netflix's DAREDEVIL,
rounding off this film's comic book trifecta), a security militia force
leader with a distinctive history of his own. "The
Accountant" in THE ACCOUNTANT is one of the more interesting personas
to grace an action thriller in quite some time, and one who's built on
layer upon layer of fascinating backstory clues that makes for an enthralling
case study. Here's a poor
child whose life was almost rendered unmanageable by his cognitive
disorder, but he was able to become a functioning adult via some very tough
fatherly love that's based on tenants of rigid self-reliance over therapy.
Ultimately, yes, Christian grew into adulthood and learned how to
subvert his autism to carry on a productive career (granted, under
questionable circumstances), but he's also a figure of pathetic isolation that
has formed no meaningful relationship ties with anyone.
All he knows is his work and his nightly routines to calm himself
down for bedtime (which involves medication, strobe lights, and a lot of Heavy Metal
music). Christian remains an
unusually gripping character throughout THE ACCOUNTANT, mostly because
Bill Dubuque's (THE JUDGE) screenplay
keeps us constantly guessing as to what this man's motives are and whether
or not he truly works for forces of good or evil. Despite an
illustrious and critically acclaimed life in front of and beyond the
camera, Affleck still manages to not get the respect he rightfully
deserves in many filmgoer circles. He
shows yet again in THE ACCOUNTANT what a perceptive and focused performer
he's capable of being when given just the right material and character to
sink his teeth into. It would
have been easy for a lesser actor to ham-infestedly overplay Christian and
his autism to shamelessly melodramatic effect, but Affleck is wise here in
demonstrating that a less-is-more approach is the right one for the
character. He brings
fascinating nuance and, most importantly, credibility to what could have
been ludicrous character and he captures Christian's internal cerebral war
within himself impeccably well. The
other performances are wonderfully dialed in as well, especially Simmons'
work as his semi-beleaguered, but steadfastly determined treasury agent.
He has a moment midway through the film that involves him engaging
in a reflective monologue that's heavy on exposition that's made all the
more digestible because of his authentic nonchalance in relaying it.
That's what great actors do - they elevate sometimes middling
material on the page. O'Connor frames
the many action beats like a pro, but part of problem with THE ACCOUNTANT
is that it takes an achingly long time to build towards these intense and
well engineered moments. The first half of the film is scattershot and sluggish as it
takes multiple detours back and forth in time to introduce us to all of
the key players. THE
ACCOUNTANT never really generates a suspense-filled pulse until about 60
minutes in, and even then the script poses many unintentional questions at
viewers, like why Christian's father thought that the best approach to his
son's upbringing was to train him to be an extraordinarily lethal ass
kicking machine. Granted, that makes it extremely convenient for him to hold
his own against equally dangerous adversaries later on. Speaking of convenient, then there's the manner in which
Christian's autism is able to be subjugated and/or rear its ugly head at
times only when the screenplay deems it...convenient. THE ACCOUNTANT
has, as mentioned, two plot twists, one of which can be seen from a
proverbial mile away by anyone with a pulse that was watching the movie
and paying attention to the flashback sequences (much like the problematic
and recent THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN,
THE ACCOUNTANT suffers from the same affliction of having a seemingly
insignificant character made predictably significant during a big climatic
reveal). The second plot twist is just nonsensically dumb and doesn't make
a hill of beans worth of sense. Still,
they weren't enough to write off this film from a worthy recommendation
from me, seeing as THE ACCOUNTANT is built upon a foundation solid action,
thankless performances, and a main character that becomes a jumbled series
of jigsaw puzzle pieces that compels viewers to put them together during
its 128 minutes. Not all of this film's pieces make sense or fit snuggly together. Hell...some embrace loony absurdity at times. However, it's still pretty cool to have an action film with an autistic super hero at its helm. Very cool, actually this film. |
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CTV PREVIEW |
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