by Jim Wigge
Contributing columnist
Many action film producers are enamored of quiet, solitary individuals who bring refined violence to their story. Dialogue is measured, tension is palpable, the good guy sees bad for what it is and reacts, bad guys are less reactive than they are thoughtful and sinister. The mix of good and bad is balletic. “The Accountant” might be your standard action film but for the particulars embedded in its central character. That character separates this movie from the norm.
What “The Accountant” offers is Christian Wolf (Ben Affleck) as the film’s protagonist. Forsaking the cliché, Affleck is cast as an unobtrusive, compulsive character who barely understands malice in its most common context. Christian is an innocent. Intellectually, his notions of malice and hostility are abstract thoughts.
We see Christian as a boy in flashbacks. He is born with autism, a savant with all attending characteristics. He has inconceivable math skills and the ability to focus on any puzzle well beyond “normally functioning” people. He has wildly erratic emotions when his equilibrium is upset, when jobs or tasks — his missions — go undone.
Christian’s brother, Brax (Jon Bernthal), has no such disabilities. As children, Brax’ response to Christian is to watch and study his brother in silence; Brax sits and observes until pushed forward by his father. The three of them form a bizarre dynamic which is better defined as the story develops.
The boys’ father is a green beret Army officer and it is he that forges the bond between two brothers. The father engages both boys in martial arts and rifle excellence. His purpose is to build certain skills, but also to channel Christian’s wild actions and extraordinary attention to detail.
Brax embraces active aggression while Christian is passive; he is emotive only from the standpoint of completing mathematics and accounting problems. As an adult, Christian’s childhood behavior becomes pharmaceutically modulated but his skills and patterns remain intact. Unlike Brax, Christian broadly perceives aggression only in the context of a mission uncompleted.
That “mission” often takes the form of ciphering complex problems, but may include neutralizing an unprovoked and immediate threat. Christian sees no distinction in response to either matter, nor is either a moral issue for him. What’s important to him is bringing the mission to closure.
As an accountant, impervious to compensation or the nature of his clients, Christian takes a job from the CEO of a high technology firm. He’s given the impossible task to uncover the embezzlement of $600 million stolen over 15 years. Overnight he discovers where and how the money was stolen but not by whom. Before he can finish his search, all of his calculations and data are erased. His mission — discovering “who” — is incomplete.
We guess, but do not know, the culprit who must now erase the data as well the individual(s) who created it. With Christian, that includes the young accountant (Anna Kendrick as Dana) who facilitated Christian’s efforts.
Now Christian has a two-ply problem. His mission is unfinished, and he and a friendly associate are threatened with their lives. Christian responds dispassionately and efficiently; his comprehension of the problem is complicated by the return of his brother.
Christian is a complex and mysterious character whose daily behavior has been tempered to habitual routines. Affleck is very good while effectively underplaying this subdued role; it is a welcome acting twist and it suits him. Bernthal is also effective as the would-be Cain to Christian’s Abel.
“The Accountant” offers no meaningful dialogue, nor a wretchedly sympathetic scenario. What it offers is spare, knuckle-hard editing plus what is the absolute best director Gavin O’Connor brings out of Affleck as a more cognizant and functional “Rainman.” Some action movies presume to be thrilling. “The Accountant” is thrilling with a spot-on response to a great set-up.
