The Accountant – A Movie in the Black

 

accountant-movieIt’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.

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  1. Fake John/Jane Galt Coolidge
    Fake John/Jane Galt
    @FakeJohnJaneGalt

    ctlaw: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?

    I did not get what you did out of the movie.  Simmons was not Afleck’s handler.  Afleck was an independent that did things for his own reasons.  Alison Wright “the voice” was his confident and was handling Simmons either at the Aflec’s request or her own.  Simmons was retiring and was recruiting his replacement via Cynthia Addai-Robinson using her research to make her sympathize to Afleck and by nature that she was already compromised by nature of her undisclosed past.

    • #31
  2. JimGoneWild Coolidge
    JimGoneWild
    @JimGoneWild

    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?

    I agree. The red flags went up for me on this very issue, but I wanted to enjoy the movie and, so, set a side some of the continuity issues.

    • #32
  3. Majestyk Member
    Majestyk
    @Majestyk

    ctlaw

    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?

    Went and saw the movie Friday night.  I thought it was excellent.  Easily the best movie I’ve seen in a theater this year – but that’s a cinch considering this year has been full of stinkers.

    I didn’t get what you got out of the JK Simmons/Baffleck relationship.  What I got out of this was that Baffleck was locked up in military prison (the reasons for this this happened offscreen and will presumably form the basis for “The Accountant: Origins”) and buddied up to the old informant because they were both off a notch.

    He escaped from military prison because, you know, it sucked there and lacking other choices due to his legal status, began working for the bad guys.  But he doesn’t particularly care for them, and in fact assuages his conscience by giving JK Simmons some juicy nuggets via handing over huge drug shipments and the like… and by giving money to the autism home and non-verbal Martha.

    Perhaps I missed something, but it seemed to me Simmons was only ever the recipient of the information, not a spymaster sending Baffleck out on missions of destruction and vengeance.  His setting up Agent Medina to become Baffleck’s new “handler” was a test to ensure that she was at least competent and had plausible reasons for coming into possession of the information Baffleck was going to be passing her via non-verbal Martha.

    • #33
  4. JimGoneWild Coolidge
    JimGoneWild
    @JimGoneWild

    Majestyk:

    ctlaw:

     

    ..

    Went and saw the movie Friday night. I thought it was excellent. Easily the best movie I’ve seen in a theater this year – but that’s a cinch considering this year has been full of stinkers.

    I didn’t get what you got out of the JK Simmons/Baffleck relationship. What I got out of this was that Baffleck was locked up in military prison (the reasons for this this happened offscreen and will presumably form the basis for “The Accountant: Origins”) and buddied up to the old informant because they were both off a notch.

    He escaped from military prison because, you know, it sucked there and lacking other choices due to his legal status, began working for the bad guys. But he doesn’t particularly care for them, and in fact assuages his conscience by giving JK Simmons some juicy nuggets via handing over huge drug shipments and the like… and by giving money to the autism home and non-verbal Martha.

    Perhaps I missed something, but it seemed to me Simmons was only ever the recipient of the information, not a spymaster sending Baffleck out on missions of destruction and vengeance. His setting up Agent Medina to become Baffleck’s new “handler” was a test to ensure that she was at least competent and had plausible reasons for coming into possession of the information Baffleck was going to be passing her via non-verbal Martha.

    I agree. Thanks.

    • #34
  5. Phil Turmel Inactive
    Phil Turmel
    @PhilTurmel

    Hmm. I got the impression that Affleck was imprisoned as a result of the wake scene, that he befriended Tambor via some unexplained chance while serving time together, and was released after his time was up.  No prior connection to Simmons at all.

    • #35
  6. ctlaw Coolidge
    ctlaw
    @ctlaw

    Phil Turmel:Hmm. I got the impression that Affleck was imprisoned as a result of the wake scene, that he befriended Tambor via some unexplained chance while serving time together, and was released after his time was up. No prior connection to Simmons at all.

    I understood that he was imprisoned in Leavenworth as a result of the wake scene. But then the FBI found out about him and transferred him to Tambor’s prison to get info from Tambor.

    • #36
  7. JimGoneWild Coolidge
    JimGoneWild
    @JimGoneWild

    ctlaw:

    Phil Turmel:Hmm. I got the impression that Affleck was imprisoned as a result of the wake scene, that he befriended Tambor via some unexplained chance while serving time together, and was released after his time was up. No prior connection to Simmons at all.

    I understood that he was imprisoned in Leavenworth as a result of the wake scene. But then the FBI found out about him and transferred him to Tambor’s prison to get info from Tambor.

    Correct.

    Also, Simmons couldn’t determine Bafflecks real name because of his secret military status. Remember: his father was pysops officer.

    • #37
  8. Gluteus Maximus of Latissimus Dorsi Inactive
    Gluteus Maximus of Latissimus Dorsi
    @Pseudodionysius

    Kay Ludlow:As an accountant, I absolutely cringed at the trailer, but maybe I’ll give it a go once its available for streaming.

    You could always run with your scissors in your hand.

    • #38
  9. JimGoneWild Coolidge
    JimGoneWild
    @JimGoneWild

    To clear things up: Francis Silverberg (Tambor), Gambino crime family bookkeeper,  is in prison as part of a federal witness protection program. Christian Wolff (Affleck) was in prison because of the incident at his mothers funeral. His name is kept secret for high level security reasons.

    Silverberg teaches Wolff about human interactions and mob business, his clients and not to stay in one place for too long.

    Eventually Wolff is transferred to another prison where he learns that Silverberg was released and then tortured and killed, so he escapes, using the thermos to hit a prison guard.

    • #39
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