By Emilio Frenk
Director: Gavin O’Connor
Cast: Ben Affleck, Anna Kendrick, J.K. Simmons, Jon Bernthal, Jeffrey Tambor, Cynthia Addai-Robinson and John Lithgow.
Rating: Good.
From the director of “Warrior” Gavin O’Connor, brings the action thriller “The Accountant” and honestly I was impressed with the result.
The movie centers on Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck) an obsesive compulsive man who has a double life as both an accountant and a assassin.
In one of his jobs he is hired to uncook the books for a robotics company run by Lamar Black (John Lithgow) and find out about some missing funds; he will be assisted by Dana Cummings (Anna Kendrick) another accountant that works for the company.
When both Christian and Dana find the truth about the funds they will become targets of the most dangerous criminals.
Now Christian will try to protect Dana at any cost before it’s too late.
The direction of Gavin O’Connor on “The Accountant” was precise and sharp. Like he did in “Warrior” back in 2011, O’ Connor likes to illustrate the inner conflicts of his main characters and shows some isolation and the most vulnerable side of them.
This so far I can say it’s the most convincing performance of Ben Affleck I’ve seen in a while and this movie reminded me of The Jason Bourne movies due to the theme that involves assassins.
On the other hand one of the major flaws the movie had was the screenplay written by Bill Dubuque, who wrote “The Judge” in 2014 was that there were moments that we knew as the audience that we’re too obvious and predictable.
The use of flashbacks I think they were not necessary and there were only two of them that really worked. If this elements would have cut off the movie could have had a better result and the screenplay would have been much better.
The editing, cinematography and the score composed were very good. The use of the music cues specially when the assassins are on the run is very well used and O’Connor is a smart director on using this elements.
As an action thriller “The Accountant” delivers the goods and I was very satisfied and it’s pure entertainment.
There were elements on the third act of the film that could have been avoided and they could have gone straight to what it is and the ending could have been better.
Despite the elements that didn’t work of “The Accountant” I give it a good recommendation and I do think you are going to be at the edge of your seat on most of the scenes, specially the climax which is very good showdown between two assassins.