A movie I wanted to like more than I did…
What Works: Jon Bernthal, Anna Kendrick, John Lithgow, Jeffrey Tambor, J.K. Simmons, Jean Smart, and Ben Affleck? No movie with a cast this good—and all are lively here, doing what they can—can be all bad, and I would estimate that most of the film’s best moments are in the line readings more than the actual lines. The little things add up like Bernthal’s jumpy violence or Simmons’ wry exposition or even Affleck’s non-jokes before he kills someone.
And the sad thing is, the movie could’ve been an atypical thriller with something special to offer. I like the idea of a forensic accountant for international criminals who needs to figure out where the money is really going in their cooked-books, and Affleck’s “Accountant” feels different. His dead-serious, deliberately bone-dry lines are funnier than the wisecracks of the Bruce Willis/Liam Hemsworth action-heroes, but his smirking self-awareness actually gives him more personality than the Tom Cruise all-business types or Jason Bourne “haunted man” heroes.
What Doesn’t: I would estimate that at least a third of this film is backstory and more than that is references of things that happened in the past which can obviously be a deadly hurdle for any action movie to overcome. There’s barely a scene that goes by without a lengthy expository sequence right after it explaining how something that happened years ago made what we just saw so much more important. By the end, a major connection is revealed between two characters that is the defintion of “lazy screenwriting” or just a big “sure, who really gives a shit? People like connections” from the studio. A better film might’ve spent one of those countless backstory sequences to set up that twist a little better.
What I Would Have Done Differently: The film is enjoyable but never gripping, and yet I still think a sequel could vastly improve on this same basic premise if they just stuck to a more straightforward story or delved into a more interesting case—any number of the cases “The Accountant” worked on before the start of the film seem a bit more involving.
Loved your review, I liked the movie. You had to pay attention to what was happening.