Review

The Accountant is not what you think. It’s the story of a functionally autistic child who grows up to be a genius CPA/operative. His clients: The mob, international crime syndicates and general criminals. He un-cooks their books by day and kills the people attempting to cover up the crimes by night. He’s a mathematical genius superhero. The film lets his story unfold from the time he is diagnosed with autism until he solves his latest crime.

Story: The writers and the director do an outstanding job of creating suspense and question marks. The story is very well developed – there are very few gaps leaving you wondering what’s happening. But, it is somewhat intellectual. Following the math as he unravels the books seems very real. I’m no mathematician, but, it looks and sounds real to me.

It’s also not a stretch to see how he is able to defend himself at the espionage/operative level. It’s a fascinating walk between degrees of total control: Civility as an Accountant to termination as an assassin.

Performances: Ben Affleck as Christian is quietly stealth. He’s so matter-of-fact about everything – The way he manages accounting, the way he assassinates people, even the way he interacts with people in normal social situations. He’s mastered his autism and used it to perfect his work… ALL of his work. Borderline Oscar worthy, depending on the rest of the field.

Anna Kendrick as Dana is the perfect validation for Christian’s math-geek, but, if you pay attention closely, you will see that his relationship with Justine is his most vital.
Jon Bernthal as Brax, J.K. Simmons as Ray and Cynthia Addai-Robinson as Marybeth add important compliments to Christian’s character and they way the story unfolds.

Visual: The actual costumes are not of note, but, the use of costumes and props to define periods of time is good. But the standout is the action scenes. Not too much, not too long, just enough to keep you engaged in the story. And clearly well choreographed.

The final word for The Accountant: Prepare yourselves – The Accountant is a movie with a future. I’m giving it a solid A and a prediction… The ending is so fantastic – on several levels – It would be a waste to leave this story with no new assignments. And there are hints to suggest there will be more. The Accountant has the potential to be a franchise much like The Bourne series. Bourne was supposed to be a trilogy and now look where they are… It can happen.

See this movie right away and hope for more…