'The Accountant' A Review

The Accountant is an action movie about Christian Wolff(Ben Affleck) an autistic black market super-accountant who's also a weapons and combat expert. We follow Wolff as he takes on a seemingly innocuous case at a robotics company where he meets Dana Cummings(Anna Kendrick) a fellow numbers nerd and discovers some illicit booking. Congruently we follow Feds Ray(J.K. Simmons) and Marybeth(Cynthia Addai-Robinson) as they try to track down Wolff. As the story progresses flashbacks reveal how Wolff was molded by his military father.

Affleck is sufficient as the autistic assassin, along with action he provides enough understatement and eccentricity to be believable but also enough unwitting humor to make the movie, perhaps unintentionally, campy. This is the latest in Kendrick's seemingly endless parade of quirky love-interest/side-kicks and although she is always fun to watch does not offer anything fresh. Simmons and Addai-Robinson are both great actors but aren't given much purpose in the story. Bernthal as the heavy is magnetic as always but he as well is given relatively short shrift as far as character depth. Overall the performances are fun and serviceable but never seem to go beyond simply entertaining.

Objectively the movie is pretty ludicrous yet it does a relatively good job of balancing and embracing the absurdity. Although not a full on parody the movie is a good action movie that doesn't take itself very seriously. Or perhaps the humor is unintentional, either way it is enjoyable.

Entertaining if unchallenging.

Rent It.