Image courtesy of tokkoro.com
The weekend after seeing Alien: Covenant, I was able to experience one of 2016's biggest surprises for the first time since seeing it in theaters, and that is an action-thriller called The Accountant.
The story follows Christian Wolff, an accountant who also discreetly uncovers financial misdeeds, usually for criminal and terrorist clients. While investigating a robotics company, he has to deal with people who could prevent him from discovering the truth, from the federal authorities already after him to numerous killers to a hitman with personal ties... and his own team of mercenaries.
Now for my thoughts:
What Worked: The Accountant has a lot to enjoy about it. Considering the movie has quite the cast behind it, I will start with that. Ben Affleck is excellent as Christian. His character is not only interesting because of his backstory, but also the traits that make his backstory interesting. He may be skilled with numbers and weapons, but he is also proficient in hand-to-hand combat. He may be stoic and not quite a people person, but there’s a reason behind him showing it: he is very focused on his work, and he has a certain vulnerability to him that affects it.
As for the rest of the cast, there are two characters that are perhaps the most interesting aside from Christian himself. The first is the hitman, portrayed by Jon Bernthal. His character not only serves as a great opponent to Christian, but he is also intimidating. He plays “tough guy” characters really well, if his character here is any indication. The other character is the director of FinCEN (the Department of Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network), portrayed by J.K. Simmons. He is great at playing the “commanding” type of character, as evidenced by his performance as J. Jonah Jameson in the original Spider-Man trilogy.
The last two characters that can be fully described within the positives are the accountant for the robotics company and the CEO, played respectively by Anna Kendrick and John Lithgow. Anna Kendrick, who usually plays characters with a sense of quirkiness, shows more curiosity here, wanting to learn more about Christian and what makes him tick. Without spoiling anything, there are consequences that come with that. With John Lithgow, his character seems to be going against a particular Hollywood stereotype: the CEO who usually cares more about his power and his money than his employees, company morale, and maybe even his relationships outside of that. It is more like the other way around with him; he shows that he does care more about the company's problems, as well as his employees.
Other aspects to enjoy here are the action and several twists. In regards to the action, it can be brutal at times, but if you've seen movies like The Equalizer starring Denzel Washington (which is probably the one it'll remind you of the most, if anything) or even the John Wick films, then you should be fine. The twists are also effective.
What Didn’t Work: There are a couple of characters not previously mentioned. Although they are still important to the story in their own way, at times, you're so invested in some of the other characters that you may even forget about them.
Also, how you may feel about the twists depends on perspective. Most may find them effective, with some finding them obvious as well. Others may find them obvious and nothing else.
Overall: The Accountant as a whole is a lot of fun. It's not a perfect action-thriller, but it definitely is one of the better ones out there, as well as an underrated one. There are two huge comparisons that can be made to John Wick. One is that the story, the characters and the action are more the main focus here than the technical aspects, as good as those are. The other, and biggest, comparison is that both have franchise potential. Evidenced by its sequel, John Wick is starting to live up to it. With The Accountant, it will be interesting to see where it goes from here. It, too, is getting a sequel, so it might not be long before the answer is given.