Ben Affleck returns in the follow-up to his most successful action film, with Jon Bernthal upped to co-star status.
PLOT: After his friend is killed while trying to track down a missing woman, Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck) attempts to solve the murder. When the trail leads to the dangerous world of human trafficking, he’s forced to contact his deadly, estranged brother Braxton (Jon Bernthal) for help.
REVIEW: It’s taken nine whole years, but here we are with a long-awaited sequel to The Accountant. For my money, the first film ranks as Ben Affleck’s best-action vehicle. While his superhero roles and other stabs at franchises, such as his turn as Jack Ryan in The Sum of All Fears, never panned out, The Accountant was a different story. The role of Christian Wolff seemed tailor-made for him. In the first movie, Wolff, who worked as a forensic accountant for the mob, was revealed to be something of a do-gooder, using the information he learned from jobs to help the feds take down violent criminals.
While all that would have made the film a serviceable action vehicle, writer Bill Dubuque and director Gavin O’Connor made the choice to have Wolff be autistic. A such, they spent a significant amount of time detailing how the quirks of his condition made him better at his job but also made it hard for him to bond with others, including his brother Braxton, who was originally the antagonist in the first film, who had a change of heart at the eleventh hour.
In the sequel, Bernthal’s been bumped up to co-star status, with the movie playing out like an ultra-violent version of Rain Man in some respects, with the two teaming up to unravel a violent plot. The Accountant 2 has been highly anticipated here at JoBlo, and I’m happy to report that the movie lives up to the first one and might actually be better thanks to the byplay between Affleck and Bernthal, who make a dynamic buddy pairing. While the plot is confusing at times and probably more complicated than it needed to be, it’s all just an excuse to put these two guys together and let them do their thing. For his part, Affleck looks trim and engaged and seems to relish once again sinking his teeth into one of his most memorable characters.
Despite being killers, the movie does a nice job humanizing both of them. Christian and Braxton are portrayed as ultimately lonely, with Wolff giving speed dating a try while Braxton agonizes over whether he should adopt a dog. You get the sense that the thing that’s missing from both of their lives is simply each other. Bernthal, in particular, is allowed to almost walk away with the movie, as Braxton pushes Christian’s buttons for largely comic effect, making the film much more amusing than the darker first film.
One thing about The Accountant 2 is that, for most of the running time, the action takes a bit of a backseat, save for a nifty opening scrap with J.K. Simmons, who returns from the first film in a smaller role, and a cool moment where Christian violently interrogates a thug. Yet, in the last half hour, the action is ramped up to a level not seen in the first film, with a sprawling final gun battle in Mexico that riffs on Heat and delivers in a big way.
Overall, The Accountant 2 works terrifically well as a slam-bang buddy action comedy, with Affleck and Bernthal at their absolute best. Cynthia Addai-Robinson returns as the straight-laced treasury agent helping out our antiheroes, with her proving to be a good foil, especially for the more murderous Braxton, who doesn’t quite have the scruples his older brother has. Danielle Pineda also makes an impression as a mysterious hit woman who enters their orbit, with her backstory figuring heavily into the plot. The only thing the movie is really missing is a good bad guy, with the villains mostly a barrage of faceless goons who only exist so Affleck and Bernthal can blow them away in the climax. Christian’s squad of fellow autistic savant helpers also seems a little too all-powerful, especially with them being all children – although this seems to be a kind of deliberate riff on Sherlock Holmes’s Baker Street Irregulars.
I’m not complaining, though—as a meat-and-potatoes action fan, I’ve been starving for a film like this. I love the sleek 87North-style action flicks that are in favour now, but The Accountant 2 is old-school in a way I’ve been missing. The extra emphasis on characterization only sweetens the pot. Bring on The Accountant 3!
