The Accountant

Dir: Gavin O'Connor

2016

**

At first, Gavin O'Connor's The Accountant was an unexpected but intriguing mixture of genres but before long it was clear that the mix of ideas just didn't gel and by the end all that was left was a total mess with one of the most underwhelmingly stupid twists I've seen for quite some time. The first real problem is our main character. Ben Affleck plays Christian Wolff, the Accountant of the film's title and an autistic maths genius. He plays the part well and I can't really fault his performance, the problem is Hollywood's age-old misunderstanding of what Asperger syndrome is and how it affects those that have it. In the film, Wolff's father, an Army general, brings up his sons to learn how to fight, take a beating and to never to reply on anyone, because 'real world'. Ben Affleck is basically Batman, Christian Bale's Batman, but with autism and sans rubber suit. He does peoples taxes, when he's not taking down in-house thieves for terrorists and the mob or doing their dirty money laundering for them. He is paid in cash, gold and sometimes famous works of art which he hangs in his secret caravan. It really is a load of Jackson Pollocks. It is an interesting premise at first but it is all utterly unconvincing, even when excepting of Hollywood's most far-fetched of stories. I like a bit of escapism and I applaud originality but I have my limits. Those with autism and asperger syndrome are capably of a lot more than people expect, that really isn't my problem with the film, my problem is the inconsistency and contradictions within Affleck's character.  Throw in an equally unconvincing and frankly, unnecessary love story, a predictable twist that I saw before the end credits had finished and one of the most puzzling sub-plot-acting-as-narrative scripts I have ever (never) seen and what you are left with is a huge 'how' and an even bigger 'why'. HOW? WHY? In trying to decipher both how and why soon came to the conclusion that actually, I didn't really care. The film took the wrong path within fifteen minutes, it was pretty much a right-off from then on. I still like Affleck, I still don't care much for Anna Kendrick, J.K Simmons can still shine in a heap of dirt and I hope Jeffrey Tambor and John Lithgow got paid handsomely for their time. Jon Bernthal came out best in the film, his character had legs and he ran with the role, until the script had all his good work undone that is but still, credit due. 2016's prize for highly anticipated but ridiculously stupid thriller goes to The Accountant, a clear winner.