Rating: ***
Review Date: 4/27/25
Cast: Ben Affleck, Jon Bernthal, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Daniella Pineda,
J.K. Simmons
A retired treasury agent is found dead, with a cryptic message written on his arm saying, "find the accountant." Before long, Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck) is wrapping his extraordinary mind around the murder along with a complicated collection of clues regarding a mysterious case he was working on. He calls on his brother Braxton (Jon Bernthal) for help, while treasury agent Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) objects to their violent and illegal tactics, and refuses to work with them. As they narrow in on their objective, more and more people end up dead, which leads to a harrowing gun fight at a juvenile detention center in Mexico.
To be honest, I have no recollection of "The Accountant" (2016) at all, so I was surprised to learn that J.K. Simmons, Jon Bernthal, and Cynthia Addai-Robinson were all returning characters. The film opens with a tense shootout, followed by a delightfully brutal factory brawl, but the middle of the film sags as Chris, Brax, and Marybeth exchange quips and air their differences while trying to solve the case. Thankfully, the film ends with an exciting and well-executed gun battle where Chris and Brax really shine.
Yes, it's a dumb action movie full of awkwardness, cringe, and absurdity, but it delivers the goods and has a lot more emotional depth than most action fare. It also goes to some very dark and grim places, which really cranks up the tension and anxiety. A tense and somber music score does an excellent job of setting the tone and creates a suffocating atmosphere of dread. Affleck and Bernthal have good chemistry and the story plays out like a psychotic buddy film, but I had a very hard time understanding their dialog, due to my hearing loss and their tendency to mumble. If I see it again, it will have to be with subtitles. In addition to not understanding the dialog, I also had a hard time following the story in general, and I still haven't figured out how all of the pieces fit together. I eventually gave up struggling with the story and just settled into enjoying the action scenes. Speaking of which, Daniella Pineda's assassin character is sorely underutilized, but she has an excellent fight scene with Cynthia Addai-Robinson, which is one of the highlights of the movie. The film pulls its punches a couple of times in order to have a happy Hollywood ending, but I'm okay with that.