Ben Affleck has proven himself to be a competent action star. 2016’s The Accountant was just another flex for the actor/director/writer who answered a hypothetical question: “What if Bruce Wayne was autistic and raised in a middle-class home?” The film was entertaining enough to warrant a sequel, though it took 9 years, with the aroma of trying to build a franchise. Whatever the good intentions were from the studio or the creative team, the result of The Accountant 2 is a reminder that some sequels don’t need to be made, and this one should’ve been taken out back and shot.
The Accountant 2 brings back the creative team from Part 1. Gavin O’Connor is back to directing the script written by Bill Dubuque, also known for creating the hit Netflix show Ozark. Affleck returns as the autistic accountant/hitman Christian Wolff, and his time around, Ray King (J.K. Simmons), requires help. King leaves a “cryptic” message for his former partner, Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson), to find Wolff, hoping the hitman’s skills will help find a missing kid. Usually, that’s enough to move the plot forward. However, the return of Wolff’s brother, Brax (Jon Bernthal), is shoehorned into the movie for what Dubuque calls comedy relief via brotherly bonding.
The script for The Accountant 2 is frustrating, to say the least. In my review of The Accountant, I described the multiple plot twists as “F**k it, one of them should stick.” The sequel takes that notion and cranks it to an eleven. Dubuque felt the need to add ridiculous concepts and stack those on top of others. An example of this occurs going into the 2nd Act of the movie. The Harbor Neuroscience, where Wolff was treated as a child, has become a hub for autistic kids like it’s the Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters.
An entire team of kids is led by Wolff’s childhood friend Justine (Alison Wright). The scene introduces this wild and ridiculous idea that The Accountant has a “man in the chair” team to hack, gather information, and do other illogical things with their war room-like setup. The scene and anything connected to it caused my eyeballs to roll out of my head and fall into my Coke Zero. Yet, it doesn’t stop there.
Dubuque continues to fling shovels full of moist concept s**t in hopes of making it stick.
Wolff, Medina, and Brax start to unravel a conspiracy that involves trafficking immigrants and the possibility that kids are being held in prison. Now, that’s nothing new, and it could lead to something action-filled or interesting, at least. However, the writer needed to combine that plot with another that features a mystery hitwoman. The device brings in another “plot twist” that makes no sense if it’s given more than thirty seconds to think about. Truthfully, this or the other unnecessary reveals could’ve been played up as if the movie was junk food cinema, but it isn’t.
The Accountant 2 treats all this as serious as a heart attack, and the acting doesn’t favor the movie.
Affleck’s acting isn’t exactly Oscar-winning material, but he does well enough to keep getting roles. On the other hand, the part in the movie is borderline atrocious. Affleck plays up the character like a cross between Frankenstein’s Monster and Raymond Babbitt from Rain Man, but with no redeeming qualities. Affleck mumbles or sadly tries to stutter most of his lines in hopes of nailing the speaking patterns of someone with autism. Additionally, none of the cast is safe from the idea of this absurd level of acting.
Addai-Robinson’s portrayal resembles a chicken running around with its head cut off. Medina is four steps behind everyone else and comes off as an incompetent agent despite being the Director of the Treasury Department’s FinCEN. Bernthal – I don’t know what he was doing in this film because it felt like the actor was in a completely different movie. Consequently, I believe most of the problems fall at O’Connor’s feet.
O’Connor has done decent work with 2011’s Warrior, The Americans series, and even the first The Accountant movie. I don’t know what he was doing with The Accountant 2. O’Connor tries to make certain scenes seem thrilling or action set pieces worth the wait. Instead, most of it was laughable or cringeworthy.
The director takes autistic kids doing some light cyber-criminalization plot point and desperately attempts to make their scene cool. A series of poorly thought-out shots and cutaways show the kids “double hacking,” with O’Connor trying his damndest to justify Wolff’s need for this team. The setup was akin to someone having a fever dream while watching a knockoff of a CBS CSI series. It doesn’t do The Accountant 2 any favors when O’Connor brings that same energy to the climactic gunfight while also making it boring.
There’s a better version of this movie in an alternate universe. A place where a sequel is done soon after the first one, the creative team gives a s**t, and the acting is at least serviceable. The Accountant 2 would’ve been forgivable if it knew what it wanted to be. I don’t hate this movie because “hate” isn’t a strong enough word. Instead, I’ll give it the grade it deserves.