I knew little about The Accountant going in. I was excited by the restrained, stylish trailer, and of course, Ben Affleck has shined in recent years. I’m pleased to say that this is another role that Affleck owns. Everything else about the film, well…
The Accountant follows an autistic savant called Christian Wolff. As a child, he demonstrated an extraordinary aptitude for puzzle solving and maths. He’s now an accountant for some of the world’s most feared drug gangs, but also deadly with a rifle – early on we get some hints that there might be a more badass side to him. Now the US Treasury Department is after him, as well a mysterious assassin who… You know what, I don’t even know, this film is a mess.
Let’s start with what I liked. The characterisation of Wolff is great. A lot of time is dedicated to building him up. We see his ticks and quirks, his difficulty socialising, and some of his habits that he uses to deal with his disorder. Affleck gives a performance that depicts the challenges Wolff faces balanced with some decent comedic timing that’s never disrespectful.
Already we’ve hit one of the snags. The tone is all over the place. Some of the action scenes are punctuated with gags, and while I laughed, I wasn’t sure whether I was supposed to. Fair enough, an awkward lunch conversation is kind of funny, but when we’re made to laugh in the middle of a life-or-death fist fight, all tension dissolves.
Not that there’s ever much tension anyway. The Accountant has a long first act, and I remember hitting one particular scene about half an hour in and thinking: Why not start the film here? Every time it tries to excite us, it cuts to some other storyline that we’re less invested in. It juggles all these characters so poorly that we wind up barely caring about any of them.
And that’s another thing. There are so many characters for what is, for most of the film, a very simple cat-and-mouse plot. You’ve got cartoonish, miscast Jon Bernthal (a.k.a. The Punisher) showing up and killing a bunch of guys, then J. K. Simmons and colleague trying to hunt this guy down, a couple of prison scenes with Jeffrey Tambor that never really amount to anything. While the characterisation of Wolff is strong, I cannot say the same for anyone else. I have no idea what any of their motives were and by the end what impact they had on the story.
This is perhaps the biggest failure of The Accountant. For saying that so much time is dedicated to flashbacks and characters telling stories to each other, it’s unfathomable how we end up knowing nothing about them. So much back story, but ultimately no story. Even some of the twists and turns that come near the third act have literally no impact on the plot because we don’t know what the consequences are meant to be.
And I did start to get sick of: “Well, when I was a child, I always wanted…” Shut up and show us what the character is about, don’t have them spell it out for us. It doesn’t work, especially because much of the dialogue is laughable. Not even kidding: “I never want to see you again. I’m responsible for my friend’s death. I never want to be reminded of that.” Who says that?!
Alright, alright, I hear you – it’s an action film, why am I being so picky? Well, that’s the thing really, it isn’t an action film. It’s trying to be a character-driven thriller. I wouldn’t write home about what little action there is – if that’s all you want, watch John Wick. There are one or two great moments, but for the most part, it’s generic with no memorable set pieces. Sometimes it’s downright awful. After having us latch on to Wolff and showing some of his badassery, there’s a scene where he attacks a house full of goons, yet it’s told from the perspective of the bad guys. Terrible storytelling.
So, that was more of a rant than I expected it to be. The Accountant isn’t one of the worst films I’ve seen this year. Despite how it crawled along, I found myself somewhat engaged for the most part. But upon reflection, even Wolff’s characterisation is inefficient, and half the subplots end with no consequences. Like accounting, it’s a slog. Unlike accounting, it has no payoff.
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