Warner Bros.
2016’s The Accountant placed criminal financial analyst cum one man army Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck) in the middle of a deadly conspiracy – thugs were shot, punched and blown up in ridiculous numbers as our anti-hero struggled to make sense of it all and protect an innocent girl caught up in the mayhem.
As an autistic man, he struggled to make sense of a wealth of other things, (more of which later!), and is re-united with his neurotypical but equally badass hitman brother Braxton (Jon Bernthal) by the end of the picture.
An unexpected hit, it came as no surprise that there would be a sequel, helmed by original director Gavin O’Connor with many of the cast coming back for more… and here we have The Accountant 2.
No, dear reader, this does not focus on Christian’s auditing techniques or the travails of living in a caravan, instead staying firmly in the world of high-tension action and ballistic thrills on an equally large scale.
But does it, erm, add up…?
We begin as retired fed Raymond King (the great J. K. Simmons, literally wasted here) is killed whilst soliciting the help of notorious assassin Anaïs (Daniella Pineda) to find a missing Salvadorean family. King’s protégé Marybeth, (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) identifies the body, sees “find the accountant” written on his arm, and takes on the case, reluctantly teaming with Christian to do so.
Faced with a stack of seemingly random evidence at King’s apartment, Marybeth is stumped, but Christian’s superhuman ability to connect patterns no-one else could perceive, (autism rather than Batman-style detective training), enables them to learn how the family fled from El Salvador to Los Angeles, effectively jumping from the frying pan into the fire. Christian invites Braxton, fresh from another contract killing, to help out. Marybeth is appalled at the brothers’ unrepentant violence… unlike we viewers, of course!
When Justine, (Allison Robertson), Christian’s non-verbal remote tech support, leads a team of autistic children as they effortlessly hack through public systems and into a bystander’s home hub to find footage of Anaïs with zero regard for law or privacy – it is the last straw for Marybeth, who decides to continue her investigations using more orthodox means.
And so the list of mysteries stacks up in earnest.
Why is people trafficker Burke, (Robert Morgan) so anxious to off Anaïs- and what exactly is her connection to the missing family?
There are audacious assassinations, gunfights, more gunfire, secrets and twists aplenty on the way to an epic showdown as the brothers fight to rescue a school bus full of trafficked kids.
Ultimately it’s Jon Bernthal who walks away with the acting plaudits as dumb but lovable hitman Braxton.
He shares some affecting moments with Affleck as the pair awkwardly bond after years of estrangement (oh the traumas of being a criminal!) and there are some genuinely funny scenes where he demonstrates his own struggles to deal with other people – the truth behind his intimate dinner with a mystery blonde genuinely made me laugh.
Affleck’s Christian is again shown to be pitifully unaware of the nuances of human relationships, particularly when he tries speed dating, tries to give himself an unnatural advantage (apart from looking like Ben sodding Affleck!), but ends up repelling the mob of eager thirty-something singletons with unflattering observations and dry advice in how to maximise their investments.
Without a defining relationship of high personal stakes, his character arc is basically his relationship with his bro.
Having been recently diagnosed as being on the autistic spectrum myself, I feel duty bound to point out that autism isn’t a super power, despite Christian coming off like a cross between Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation and The Terminator with a sharp designer wardrobe or his team of savant Baker Street Irregulars in their Batcave-like underground lair.
Let’s not forget that despite his occasional forays into doing good things, Christian’s day job is basically “problem solving” for crime families and cartels, be it number crunching or bone crunching- God knows what awful things those kids would be doing in the course of a normal work day.
I wanted to enjoy this, but it’s pretty generic for my tastes and stop-start scenes like the speed dating and an ill-conceived visit to a cowboy honky-tonk only detract from what should be rising tension. Like so many of today’s action thrillers, it seems as if it has been written by some form of computer algorithm… unless this is the sort of things Christian’s basement of brainiacs are really doing!
You must be logged in to post a comment Login