The Accountant
Director: Gavin O’Connor
Stars: Ben Affleck, Anna Kendrick, J.K. Simmons
Duration: 128 mins
Class: 15
KRS Releasing Ltd

Outwardly, it would appear that Christian Wolff (Affleck) is your run-of-the-mill accountant, working out of a nondescript office in a small town. Yet, his basic office is a simple cover for the work – and not just with a calculator – that he carries out for some of the world’s most dangerous criminals.

However, the authorities have sat up and taken notice of this mysterious man who keeps popping up in CCTV footage and photos of illicit activity. On the advice of his mysterious handler, Christian decides to take on a legitimate client to throw off the scent.

Wolff is hired by Living Robotics, a major company run by the charismatic and philanthropic Lamar Blackburn (John Lithgow). Dana Cummings (Anna Ken-drick), a junior accountant within the company, has discovered a discrepancy in the company’s books. Yet, as Wolff’s investigation takes off, he soon realises that it’s not simply a matter of missing money and this may prove to be as dangerous as his previous jobs. To complicate matters further, Wolff has more than one secret – and his past soon threatens to catch up with him.

The Accountant is a crime thriller that purports to add a twist to the norm by placing its protagonist on the autism spectrum – for, we soon discover that Wolff is a highly-functioning math savant, among his many qualities. Yet, the story written by Bill Dubuque doesn’t really cash in on the uniqueness or complexity of the character... and falls too much into comfortable predictability, while relying on too many coincidences and plot contrivances to stand up to scrutiny.

The film is peppered with flashbacks to Wolff’s childhood as his parents seek professional help for him, how his army father instilled in him the toughness that is now second nature to him and how his condition affected his family life and so on.

Falls too much into comfortable predictability, while relying on too many coincidences

We see him living his stark, outstandingly ordered life, with his reliance on routine, his single knife, fork and spoon lying neatly in a drawer and taken out once a day for his evening meal.

There’s his penchant for ensuring the different types of food on his plate do not touch one another, while the trailer he keep stashed away where he stores the fruits of his illegal labour – weapons, suits, money, myriad passports and the odd valuable piece of art – is a fascinating hideout.

Yet, it is all narrated by rote. A portrait is painted of the character, but it is all we see.

We are supposed to feel torn between sympathy for him and distaste for his methods – he is after all an assassin.

Yet, despite Affleck’s best intentions and committed performance, it is hard to engage either way. He does share some nice chemistry with Kendrick’s Cummings – the two bond over their affinity with numbers. Kendrick brings her trademark sunny personality to an otherwise unremarkable damsel-in-distress role.

John Lithgow injects enough gravitas into the role of the Living Robotics founder to avoid caricature, while J.K. Simmons is also on hand to provide typically reliable support as Ray King, the head of the Treasury Department’s crime enforcement division hot on Woolf’s heels.

The latter quietly offering the best and most interesting characterisation, although blackmailing a subordinate into taking up a case does not fit in with his decent guy persona.

Jon Bernthal plays a rival assassin, yet his place in the bigger picture – supposedly another twist in the tale – is blindingly obvious from the outset.

Director Gavin O’Connor’s direction is adequate and the various action scenes that unfold throughout the story are entertaining enough. Wolff’s fighting and killing style is efficient and neat, mirroring his general personality. But it is still no enough to elevate The Accountant into something more exciting.