Movie Reaction: The Accountant

Formula: Haywire + The Equalizer

"Who is the Accountant?" has been the entire marketing campaign for this movie and it's an effective one. Because, the previews don't answer that. He's an accountant. He's deadly. He isn't emotional. He's everything -- and nothing -- at the same time. No one can accuse the movie of not believing its own hype. It is nothing if not committed to the enigmatic character at its center.

There's a lot working in the movie's favor. I've always liked Ben Affleck. He works in his comfort zone as an actor while finding room to try new variations. The Accountant is Affleck as an autistic Jason Bourne and he plays it well. When he needs to kick ass, he kicks ass. When he needs to get a laugh out of a line-reading or a look, he gets a laugh. He doesn't disappear into the character, which is fine. The character doesn't work without a little movie-star charisma. Anna Kendrick is in a familiar role as well. Imagine if her character from Up in the Air found herself in the middle of an action movie. It features one of the finest "TV All-Stars" supporting casts in recent memory: J.K. Simmons, Jeffrey Tambor, Jean Smart, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, John Lithgow, Jon Bernthal, and Allison Wright. And yes, all of them are playing familiar roles. There's something to be said about obvious casting. If someone is right for the part, they are right for the part. No need to overthink it.

At its heart, The Accountant is a dumb action movie. There's conspiracies and twists, but all it really is is two super soldiers (Affleck and Bernthal) on a collision course with a high body count along the way. And, with a lot of humor. What's not being sold in the trailers and TV spots is the darkly comedic edge it has. Any films I can compare it to would give away some twists, so I'll withhold that much. But, know that it's actually pretty funny.

I'm scared to even begin describing the plot. There's a lot of it. More than there needs to be. Affleck is an accountant for some bad dudes. He's just there for the accounting puzzles though. He can kill anyone with ease --there's plenty of flashbacks to his dad training him extensively -- but it's the puzzles that excite him. J.K. Simmons is an upper-level FBI guy who is blackmailing a younger analyst (Addai-Robinson) to investigate the accountant. Bernthal is a mercenary who is hired to keep one of the accountant's puzzles unsolved. Anna Kendrick is there because she's a junior account who first realized that there is a puzzle for the accountant to solve. Jeffery Tambor was in prison with the accountant at some point. John Lithgow and Jean Smart are siblings who run the company that Kendrick works for and...I give up. It's all very convoluted. There is a difference between smart writing and complex writing.

Overall, the movie is about 10% too cute with all the twists. I'm not someone who likes to figure out twists as I'm watching something. I think it does the movie a disservice to turn it into a game. Even still, I couldn't help but assume most of the twists early on and it did little to inform any of the story. A significant amount of the plot contortions rely on "the protagonist is God" explanations. It failed my One Big Leap test many times over. That would've been fine had it embraced the silliness of it all, but it doesn't do that until it's too late to enjoy it.

I fully appreciate The Accountant for what it is . My only issue is that it is more focused on being clever than entertaining, which drags it down a lot. Usually, the narrower the focus of a scene, the better it is. A strong cast and upstanding of everyone's roles in the cast keeps it going even in during the noisiest plotting. If you really want me to simplify things, here: Go into this expecting The Equalizer, not The Bourne Identity.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend