Part autistic mathematical genius, part killing machine. That’s one way to describe the main character from the new movie“The Accountant.”
This movie directed by Gavin O’Connor was an interesting, yet perplexing look into the life of a mysterious man living a double life. Although this movie was definitely entertaining, it’s mixture of dramatic subplots were so confusing it made your head spin.
Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck) plays a normal accountant working in an Illinois strip mall who secretly does business with some of the most dangerous organizations in the world, sniffing out embezzlers.
Thinking the government might be onto him, Wolff takes on a safer client and accepts a job with a robotics company called “Living Robotics” who specialized in making robotic prosthetic limbs. His job was to investigate if and how $60 million dollars went missing from the company.
We learn throughout the movie that Wolff was raised by his father, a military man who thought the cure to autism would be to expose him to everything he feared. He taught him martial arts, by forcing him to have fist fights with kids at school.
As an adult, Wolff uses this knowledge of fighting along with his amazing ability to be a human calculator as his main two weapons. He also demonstrates how he knows his way around a sniper rifle and is pretty useful with his fists.
Flashbacks to Wolff’s childhood keep the viewer interested and make the character more relatable. A look into his tough love upbringings help the audience learn why Christian does what he does.
Right as he’s about to finish the case at “Living Robotics” and find out who the thief is, a murder takes place which causes Christian’s entire project to be canceled, and he soon finds himself in a twisted conspiracy.
Meanwhile, a retired Treasury Department worker Ray King (J. K. Simmons) is on his tail, hiring Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) to do his dirty work in finding Wolff.
What was so profound about this film waseven though Wolff’s character did not know how to show emotion, Affleck was really able to portray him in a way the audience could relate to.
Overall, the story was interesting, but the layers of subplots made the story almost too overwhelming. At times, it was difficult to keep up. There were so many different aspects to the story that the audience was left asking questions when it was all over.