The Accountant Movie Review

Anna Kendrick & Ben Affleck (r) star in The Accountant

Smoke and Mirrors

Rotten Tomatoes Plot: Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck) is a math savant with more affinity for numbers than people. Behind the cover of a small-town CPA office, he works as a freelance accountant for some of the world's most dangerous criminal organizations. With the Treasury Department's Crime Enforcement Division, run by Ray King (J.K. Simmons), starting to close in, Christian takes on a legitimate client: a state-of-the-art robotics company where an accounting clerk (Anna Kendrick) has discovered a discrepancy involving millions of dollars. But as Christian uncooks the books and gets closer to the truth, it is the body count that starts to rise. Directed by Gavin O'Connor.

The Accountant is a tale of two cities movies. The first half is surprisingly bor-ing (befitting its title) before morphing into Batman/Jason Bourne for the final, action-packed hour. The transition is far from seamless, despite a playful (albeit muted) performance from Affleck. Blame that on O'Connor and writer Bill Dubuque for taking so long to get going. Once the light turns green however, all is forgiven. It's stylishly shot, with top-notch action sequences and bits of humor, "What did he do? Hit him over the head with an adding machine?" Overall? Entertaining, but falls a little short (of expectations.)

Grade: B-