Hammerman Ikon

Hammerman Ikon Film Guide

The Accountant
2016
*
Director: Gavin O'Connor
Cast: Ben Affleck, Anna Kendrick, J. K. Simmons, Jon Bernthal, Jeffrey Tambor, John Lithgow, Seth Lee, Jake Presley, Cynthia Addal-Robinson, Jeffrey Tambor, Jean Smart, Andy Umberger

This dumb action drama was a surprise hit, although it features one of the most ridiculously incoherent scripts I have ever seen. Go figure! At one-hour mark, I still had no clue who the main character was or what this film was about. When the end credits rolled, I was none the wiser. Let's start with the protagonist Chris, who is an autistic math wiz. With his glasses on, he's a brilliant forensic accountant who has made millions from his work for criminal organisations. When the glasses come off, however, he's a deadly marksman and martial arts specialist. A robotics company hires him to uncover a potential embezzlement, and when he does, the embezzler thinks the best way to keep it under wraps is to assassinate Chris, a few members of the senior management, and the company's junior accountant, who looks to be the female lead but then disappears because this movie is not really about her. What is this movie about? In the meanwhile, a treasury agent assigns his analyst to search Wikipedia in order to discover the identity of the mysterious accountant, although it seems he already knows it. During the course of the movie, the flashbacks and expositions reveal the trauma in Chris' past, which is nothing short of stupid. Ben Affleck plays this autistic hero as a man who is unable to show emotions. Frankly, this is not much different from his performance as Batman.