The Accountant is the Ben Affleck Batman performance that “should have been.” Although, like BvS, the movie is also dragged down by a convoluted script.
The Accountant Synopsis
As a child, autistic Chris Wolff was subject to extensive military training by his army psychological warfare officer father. This equips him with lethal killing skills, and in adulthood, Wolff earns a living by tracking financial discrepancies for criminal enterprises. During his latest assignment, he uncovers a massive embezzlement within the Living Robotics Corporation, one that resulted in CFO Ed Chilton committing suicide. Wolff then discovers that Chilton was in truth, forced to kill himself. The assassin is also someone Wolff is all too familiar with.
Snappy Review
The gist of it, I got bored with The Accountant before it was a third through.
It started off intriguing enough, though. A suit-wearing hunk crunches numbers for the underworld. He also happens to be autistic and maybe because of that, shoots like Deadshot.
Quickly, however, the plot swirls into a mess of lame cliques you could predict from a mile away, one that also makes you wonder every other minute what exactly the focus of the story is. (Is it the possibly abusive military dad, murderous sibling rivalry, or what?) It was as if the scriptwriters were unsure what makes for a good story in this genre, and so they dumped in every anti-hero stereotype they could think of.
The result? Messy. So very messy and confusing. Not to mention anti-climactic at every turn too.
Which is a huge pity, for Ben Affleck delivers such a commendable performance. His character’s suave deadliness and idiosyncrasies engage. I believe most viewers would also feel inclined to cheer for him during those oh-so-awesome killing moments.
It was while watching these killer moves that my mind strayed, and I began to wonder whether Affleck would have fared better in his other major role of 2016 i.e. Batman, had he been given a script that didn’t portray him as an unthinking blockhead.
I believe so. You see, The Accountant, on the whole, felt more Batman to me than BvS. I could also easily imagine The Accountant as Bats, The Voice as Oracle, Marybeth Medina as an alternate Commissioner Gordon, etc.
By extension, I guess that means there is hope in Affleck’s future performances as Batman. Coming back to The Accountant, I doubt we would see a sequel. Why would producers splurge on two so similar characters?
The Accountant is likely to end up as one of those movies most would watch on cable. It wouldn’t bore, but neither would it truly impress.
Click here to view the trailer.
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