Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck) is an autistic forensic accountant that cooks the books for some of the most dangerous criminal organisations in the world. He generally lays low and goes about his day by following a strict schedule down to the minute (due to his autism). The most personal communication he does is via his cell phone with a mysterious robotic sounding voice, who also brokers his deals for him.
The voice alerts him to the fact that “people are looking into him” and he needs to take a clean job just to keep his hands clean for a while. The people in question is the Director of Financial Crimes at the Treasury Department, Raymond King (JK Simmons) who has recruited…more like coerced a junior analyst, Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) to put a face and find the man only known as “The Accountant”, before he retires in 7 months.
Christian takes a job at Living Robotics,a company owned by Lamar Blackburn (John Lithgow). A young accountant at the firm, Dana (Anna Kendrick) has found discrepancies in the books and Christian is hired to find the leak. This is where all hell breaks loose and we meet an assassin in the mix (Jon Bernthal) and begin the dead body count.
Now honestly, everyone keeps shitting on Ben Affleck but all bias aside, I truly enjoyed this movie. It’s a typical “January” movie (this is what I call movies that come out the beginning of the year right after the slew of serious award bait movies) but it had the right balance of everything. It had me interested in the story line and at some point I started guessing the twists (which isn’t so hard to figure out) but I was 1 out of 2 on that.
The movie was not flawless by any means but it was an enjoyable thriller with good action sequences. Some parts of the plot were kind of wonky and a bit disjointed (specifically a plot line that connected two of the characters) but nothing that can’t be overlooked. It had laughs at the right moment and also had its emotional moments. The flashbacks that showed us more of how Christian came to be who he is today was done well.
I’ve never been sold on Anna Kendrick as an actress not because of her skills but just because I lump her with Amy Adams, Jessica Chastain et al. They just seem so vanilla and boring (honestly, I just don’t like their faces. Yes I know, I know, I should be a better person) but the truth is like the aforementioned ladies, I have to admit that she gets the job done. I didn’t think her part in the movie was quite necessary but I understand why it had to be included. I think it tempered the testosterone of the movie a bit and added a softer side.
Overall, if you are looking for a fun, action packed thriller to watch, I think it’d be worth your money to watch at the theater. Yay Ben Affleck 😀