The Accountant (2016)

Imagine my surprise when I walked out of The Accountant and I had only positive things circling my mind!? Because despite the promising trailer, and the premise, I was so certain the movie was going to step into the well known action thriller hole of clichés. Yet, The Accountant kept it fresh right until the end, surprising me with an unconventional final act, that deserves some praise on its own.

Keep in mind that I’m writing this spoiler review three months after seeing The Accountant – that is a super long time to not write a review and part of me thought I should skip it. Then I thought how much fun The Accountant was and how fuzzy and good I felt after watching it. So fuzzy that even now, three months later, I still smile back to some of my favourite moments throughout the movie. It is memorable, and saying something like that about an action movie, is saying a lot.

Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck) is a high functioning math savant – he was basically trained to be as normal as he could be by his father. During the flashbacks, it’s shown that his mother left him and his brother behind, unable to deal with Christian’s condition. And you can only imagine what being raised by a single father, who also happens to be military trained, feels like. But the majority of the story does not happen in the past, though the flashbacks are important for showcasing the family dynamic and Christian’s upbringing.

The main plot revolves around the new legal job Christian takes on, looking for suspicious transactions, which were discovered by a cute as a button accountant Dana Cummings (Anna Kendrick). Using the entire surface of the office (which looked pretty darn cool), he is close to finding out the truth behind Dana’s suspicion – but bodies start to turn up, Christian is fired and when he realises Dana’s in danger, he breaks his routine and decides to save her.

At this point you need to understand that Christian is not the kind of man to break routine. He leads a very specific life according to specific rules and he does so because he, in addition to being an honest accountant, is also a very dangerous one. Working for bad guys, laundering their money, including his own, he leads a double life. When things get difficult, he leaves, starts a new one, and keeps in contact with only the person behind the mysterious female voice, who he trusts and works with. Saving Dana but also taking her with him breaks that routine, and it seems he himself is just as shocked by this as Dana is to find out his secret stash of money, guns and his skills to kill.

There is also the sub-plot of the government getting close to Christian Wolff and his secret identity, which at times feels a little too much of a show and tell montage of what they know about the guy. That’s pretty much the only thing that bothered me about The Accountant, the scene were J. K. Simmons lays out all the facts about Wolff, with flashbacks and everything. Three months later, it feels like that part should have been written a bit differently.

One thing I loved about the movie though were the crisp fighting sequences! When Christian pulled out his belt, I was like yaaas, this is it, I love it now! The sound editing and the fact how you could see the hits, not just hear them, felt authentic. So many action movies make fighting scenes too choppy and fast, with The Accountant (similar to John Wick), as a viewer, you saw what was going on, and that’s what makes this movie great. Even the final scene, which took place in a dark house, I knew what was happening. I wasn’t confused by the action scenes, I knew who was winning, who got hurt, who got shot – just like it should be.

As I’ve mentioned numerous times, every time I’ve mentioned The Accountant really, I loved the ending! I loved how we realise that the company that hired him also hired his brother to kill Christian. I loved how his brother Brax (Jon Bernthal) realised it, and I loved LOVED how they reunited! Just like that, everything around them suddenly didn’t matter, and it was all about these two really messed up brothers, both very skilled killers, finally back together. Brax of course being the emotional one in this scenario, which was brilliant, and Brax’s character is yet another proof that Bernthal is something special!

So yes, I loved The Accountant! I though it was fun, crisp and just the right amount of action packed for a feel good entertaining movie experience. And to be honest, I would love to see a sequel to this movie. Like seriously, just like John Wick 2 will most likely be amazing, I have a feeling that The Accountant 2 would be just as great. And it’s because both these lead characters are interesting, complex and a little detached from other people – and oh my god!, if John and Christian ever teamed up, can you imagine?! I would quit being a bad guy immediately.