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The Accountant – A Movie in the Black
It’s nice to pay for a movie and not be disappointed. I know that sounds odd, but in this day and age of Hollywood where more and more movies are created for foreign consumption, it is nice to be able to say it. Not only was I not disappointed–I actually enjoyed it.
I watched The Accountant starring Ben Affleck. Here are some more things to like. None of the characters are really unlikable, not even the bad guys. It doesn’t bash any group or take political shots—when it could. Even Ben Affleck’s character, a high functioning autistic, manages a small smile once in a while.
The plot twist is pretty good — clever and original. I won’t give it away, but you’ll like it. Hollywood moguls must have rejected this script 100 times until someone decided to treat the viewer like they had a brain. That or someone screwed up.
But even better, everything is balanced. Not too techie, not too violent, not too heavy, no special effects, not stupid, no sex scenes substituting for good dialog (In fact, the women in it are pretty ordinary looking). And, I’m not sure how to word this right, but all the characters are flawed and make small mistakes or screw up just enough so we know they’re human.
OK, this is an action flick, so there is gun-play and fight scenes in it but they’re pretty good.
If it has one fault, maybe, just maybe; the end almost becomes an ad for AutismSpeaks.org or something.
You don’t need to see it in a big theater but see it.
Published in Entertainment
Thanks for the recommendation…I’ll definitely go and see it!
Excellent. I’m glad that this is a good movie.
Is it accurate to say that Aflac isn’t playing an Asperger’s afflicted Jason Bourne?
Funny you should mention Asperger’s. Afflect’s character uses names of past mathematicians with autism and Asperger’s as aliases. But no, he’s not. He does do good hand-to-hand fight scenes.
It was on my list, but I feared that somehow, somewhere there’d be a ticking political time bomb in it somewhere. Thanks for the “all clear.”
Interestingly, on Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 49 from the critics and an 87 from the audience.
That kind of disconnect is unusual for a general interest film.
He is sort of channeling an Aspergers afflicted Bruce Wayne.
The movie is very watchable with a couple of twists. The first was a twist I expected that was not there. The second twist was fairly obvious but since the first one was missing you could not be sure the second one was there for sure. The last twist caught me completely off guard. They almost ruined it with the Aspergers message at the end but it is not enough to make the movie unwatchable. All in all it is worth the time, especially since it is one of those movies that are different than you expected when you go in.
I’ll see it, but I wish it weren’t Ben Affleck. I just can’t see him as an action hero or a leading man, he’s so dorky. He looks more like the president of the Student Council to me.
I used to think the same way but his few years of performances is starting to make me change my mind. It may be that he just grew out of the dorky look as he got older. Also he seems to have become a better actor in the last few years.
Well I’d still have to overcome the idiotic political opinions. I’m running out of actors.
He could still play Pinocchio if given the opportunity… at times.
He fits this part.
I liked the final twist at the very end, in the house. Most people in the theater, I think, missed it because they started getting ready to leave.
I’ll second the recommendation. From the preview I was expecting more of a brooding tone steeped with nihilism. Instead it was an entertaining action flick with interesting characters and a number of good laughs. (Don’t read that wrong, the laughs were from Afleck’s socially awkward responses rather than cheezy catch-phrases. There is plenty of tension in the movie, but it doesn’t drag you down.)
I saw it in IMAX and enjoyed it a lot. It was nice to see something on the REALLY BIG screen that wasn’t a superhero movie in 3D. I don’t know why it got the mediocre 50ish score on RT.
Exactly my thoughts. I spoke to a few people who saw it and they hit on all these points too. Thanks.
Come to think of it, I never have heard anyone say, “Hey if you want get the really good looking girls to like you, talk to them about accountancy.”
Good point. It’s never worked for me.
Cool. Thanks. Hell or High Water was awesome. I saw it downtown last night Jim.
The fight scenes use Indonesian Pentjak Silat, unless I’m mixing up my Affleck with Aflac.
Thanks for the recommendation. You’re right; too few really good movies lately. And, you get about 48 trillion likes for posting something with no political content. Huzzah!
I agree the final twist was unexpected while also nicely tying up a loose end.
That is true about almost every other single dorky work subject that people can geek out about. “He girl due you know java script” is not a great pick-up line either. Accounting is the one heavy math profession where there are more women working in it than men.
I’m glad you think this, too. He’s rather effeminate, but it works in this role, since it’s offset by the action scenes. We were pleasantly surprised by the movie, too. Recommend it.
Thanks, Jim. That almost makes me want to go see a movie about an accountant. Almost.
Thanks for the post. I had already seen the movie, and I agree with your review.
As an accountant, I absolutely cringed at the trailer, but maybe I’ll give it a go once its available for streaming.
Well, there’s not a lot of accounting–in the traditional sense–going on. Yes, as an accountant, you may not like some of it. Hollywood never gets things right. Just ask anyone who’s been in the military or law enforcement.
Think of him as a forensic accountant that makes his own bodies.
Yes, 3 twists. I said one plot twist, but there are really 2. And then a end twist–like a martini. Thanks.
Not a bad film, but not a great one. I’ll give a warning before any real spoilers.
I hate Ben Affleck as a person. I do find some of his comedy good. I don’t like his narcissism. It pains me to endorse an Affleck film, but this is an OK one.
This is a Ben Affleck film, so there has to be a distracting level of shots of him from behind flexing lats that would make @bossmongo look like Don Knotts. That really annoyed me back in Argo, because he looked like nobody did in the 1970s.
Some of the Autism stuff was a bit weird.
Now for the spoilers:
Wait.
Wait.
Wait.
The issue of his brother. Was obvious from the beginning.
Ont thing that confused me was the lack of continuity in the relationship between Simmons and Affleck. At the time Affleck got the drop on Simmons after the mob hit, Simmons had already been Affleck’s handler for a couple of years. Simmons got Affleck out of Leavenworth, trained him, inserted him as an informant into the prison to work with Tambor. So why did they treat it as if Simmons did not know who Affleck was in that scene. Why all the effort to make the female agent figure it out?
What was the time lapse between Simmons’s first work with Affleck and that scene. Was it like in year X Simmons inserted Affleck into the prison; X+1 Affleck is extracted; X+2 to X+10 Affleck goes out on his own; builds his little empire and then comes back to wipe out the mobsters; X+10 to X+20 Affleck via the “British woman” builds Simmons career?