Susan Granger’s review of “The Accountant” (Warner Bros.)
Admittedly, screenwriter Bill Dubuque’s original concept is potentially intriguing: an enigmatic mathematical savant becomes an underworld bookkeeper/assassin.
When we first meet Christian Wolff, he’s a troubled youngster, working on a jigsaw puzzle. Rather than cater to his autism/Asperger’s diagnosis, his sadistic, domineering military father (Robert Treveiler) forces him to confront it, training him in martial arts combat and survival skills, bizarrely shifting his developmental disorder from a liability into an asset.
As a result, now-adult Wolff (Ben Affleck) launders money for various criminal organizations, deftly disguising himself as a mild-mannered CPA with a nondescript office in rural Illinois strip mall. Socially awkward, he’s a loner who finds solace in routine and ritual.
Ostensibly dwelling in a suburban tract house, Wolff keeps his valuables – original paintings by Renoir and Jackson Pollock, along with cash and an armory of weapons – in an old Airstream trailer, hidden in storage locker.
But soon-to-retire U.S. Treasury Agent Raymond King (J.K. Simmons) is determined to unmask the mysterious accountant, enlisting the help of Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson), a savvy financial Analyst whose dogged determination is propelled by a need to hide her own felonious past.
Their paths cross when Wolff’s hired to balance the books by robotics CEO Lamar Blackburn (John Lithgow) after his company’s over-eager accounting clerk Dana Cummings (Anna Kendrick) discovers a discrepancy involving millions of dollars – which makes Wolff a target for brawny Braxton (Jon Bernthal), a hired killer.
Unfortunately, as the cryptic, character-driven saga unfolds, via numerous flashbacks, it becomes increasingly complicated, as director Gavin O’Connor, cinematographer Seamus McGarvey and editor Richard Pearson seemingly disregard several pretentious subplot distractions to chronicle the violent carnage.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Accountant” is a fragmented 5. It doesn’t add up.
