This past Tuesday, I was given the opportunity to attend a pre-screening of The Accountant, a new action film starring Ben Affleck, Anna Kendrick and J.K. Simmons (no, Ben Affleck didn't come to the screening-- I'm only mildly offended). While the film had some pacing and clarity issues, overall it was a solid, enjoyable action film that-- amidst the gunfights and mathematic formulas-- was able to lend a better understanding to people with cognitive disabilities (such as Affleck's character, Christian Wolff) without being heavy-handed and preachy.
THIS IS A SPOILER-FREE REVIEW-- No plot details that can't clearly be derived from the trailers will be in this article!
The film's premise is of a math savant, Christian Wolff (Affleck), who uses a small-town CPA office as cover for his "true" job-- an accountant for some of the most feared criminal organizations in the world. His motives are unclear, something a Treasury agent played by J.K. Simmons is eager to discover. While there is eventually a reveal, it is slightly confusing and can easily be missed, which sums up the largest issue with this film-- clarity.
The Accountant, as a film, seems to pride itself on puzzles. In one of the first scenes of the film, a 9 year old Christian Wolff solves a god-knows-how-many-piece jigsaw puzzle in mere minutes. The free t-shirt I received at the screening had "The Accountant" superimposed on a puzzle. One of the repeated phrases in the film is-- you guessed it-- "Do you like puzzles?"
While this film can be puzzling, it is no true puzzle. Unlike some films like Donnie Darko and Fight Club, which invite viewers to watch and re-watch the film, piecing together little hidden bits that help further clarify the film. Unfortunately, The Accountant is not this sort of puzzle that it may have aspired to be, demanding a re-watch not because of a hidden easter egg in the background, but rather because of the unclear and muddled reveals. There was quite a bit of mid-movie whispering between my girlfriend (who also attended the screening) and I as we both tried to understand what exactly was said in the previous scene. This also leads to one segment of the film being notably slower than the rest, as the segment required full understanding of what was happening.
With the cons aside, The Accountant is overall a very entertaining movie, and does make the audience want to try and solve the plot's puzzles before the movie reveals the solution. Ben Affleck's performance is very enjoyable (and humorous-- his bluntness as a result of his social deficiency is often played for laughs). But what the movie does well is understand just how difficult it is for someone on the spectrum to try and fit in with everyday life. A couple times in the film, Christian Wolff's daily regimen is shown, which includes him deliberately subjecting himself to sensory overload. It deliberately overwhelms the audience, so we can get a taste of how Wolff feels on a day-to-day basis. His OCD is also showcased frequently throughout the film, even carrying over to the gun-slinging parts of his life-- as my girlfriend pointed out to me, in one sequence he took out all of his adversaries with three shots (which sometimes meant emptying a couple shots unnecessarily into the already clearly dead enemy).
This small peek into the life of someone who is on the spectrum is an important aspect to the film, but it never feels like you're being preached to. However, I feel like it'd be better if this insight was allowed access to a larger audience. Just recently, the film was given a rating of "R", one which I think would have been very easy to circumvent without ruining the film (just remove a couple of the F-bombs) in order to preserve a PG-13 rating. But overall, The Accountant is an enjoyable action film with a few minor caveats that ultimately don't detract too much from a positive viewing experience.
The Accountant hits theaters this Friday, October 14th.
