The Accountant premiered on Oct. 14th and is a fresh entry into the action-thriller genre. Ben Affleck plays Christian Wolff, a math genius with high-functioning autism who handles the books for some of the deadliest criminals in the world. This makes it hard for Wolff to form close bonds with people, while also being tormented by the memories of growing up with his military father.
The story focuses around Chris finding out that his seemingly legitimate client, a robotics company run by Lamar Black (John Lithgow), may not be as clean as he thought, and a pair of treasury agents (J.K. Simmons and Cynthia Addai-Robinson) are close to figuring out who he is.
Some of the more interesting moments in the film are when it focuses on Ben Affleck’s character as a whole. Ben Affleck managed to pull off a lot of expressions while doing very little, and even put some humor into most scenes. Affleck even excels in his combat scenes with intense hand-to-hand combat and gun play. Simmons, Kendrick and Bernthal do give strong performances but don’t bring anything to the table that we haven’t seen them do before.
Out of all the supporting actors, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, who’s mostly done TV roles, shines the strongest compared to her other stars. Addai-Robinson plays the treasury agent tasked with figuring out who Cristian really is. Her performance made her character intriguing to watch solve the mystery of who the Accountant really is. The chemistry she and Simmons shared also helped boost her performance by giving her character a reason for finding Chris and his associates.
Director Gavin O’Connor has given moviegoers one of the best action-thrillers in recent years. Ben Affleck’s quiet but deadly Christian Wolff is a character I hope he plays again in other films. While it was disappointing to not see anything new in their performances, Simmons, Kendrick and Bernthal were terrific casting choices. The Accountant is definitely a movie that an action fan must see.