The Accountant

I knew nothing about this film, and the above picture is not what was shown on screen on in the limited movie menu I have in room while away.  If this had been the the virtual DVD cover I certainly would have watched this much sooner.  But when you’re presented with a film called “The Accountant” and the write up just talks about accountancy fraud it does tend to make me feel like watching paint dry or grass grow would be more interesting.

As it stands this film was infinitely more interesting than that. 

The movie starts with with a view of a child being assessed by an outreach programme for kids with autism.  Affleck’s character is the child being assessed (obviously not Affleck at this stage, that would be weird), and he is completing what appears to be a billion piece jigsaw puzzle, on finding the last piece missing, he goes in to melt down, but another child at the programme sees the piece on the floor and hands it to him.

It transpires that his farther declines the programme for his child as he feels that rather than teaching his child with autism how to handle life in a way suited to the condition he will just over expose the child to life and deal with autism in his own way.

Next you see Affleck dealing with a couples taxes and while coping with life, his social skills are blunt to say the least.  He is working in a small time accountancy firm, but while dealing with a local farmers taxes he helps to save them money and they invite him to their farm to shoot.  

This film then takes quite a few twists and turns, which honestly I could probably spend all day writing about, but that you’ll take all the fun out of the film for you guys watching it.

So what do you need to know? The Accountant is a gun shooting, martial art expert who takes payment in fine art and collectibles as well as money.  He has a person helping him who calls in jobs for him and tells him when to move on, he takes a job to uncover fraud in a company which ends up having people trying to kill him and Kendrix and he has a brother who is unknowingly working against him.

There is a stoic humour to the piece which only a character with autism could bring to this, with the social awkwardness combined with the intelligence and a need to finish things.

This does feel a little bit like a retaliation from Affleck because Matt Damon went off and played in the exciting world of “Bourne” without him, but none the less I found this film entertaining and enjoyable.

At no time did the storyline lag and I really loved the relationship that forms between Affleck and Kendrix’s characters.  I also particularly enjoyed the end little twist as I hadn’t really thought about it, and it wraps the film up nicely.  I’ll not add the spoiler in…you’ll just have to watch it to find out.