In The Accountant 2, Ben Affleck adopts a questionable voice, the aspiring franchise embraces humor, and a convoluted plot gives way to some well-done action sequences in this odd but entertaining sequel. The best part is when Affleck inadvertently but clearly intentionally slams my girlfriend during an amusing speed dating scene, reacting negatively to the age of a woman, which just so happens to be my girlfriend’s age. Oh, and we met while speed dating.
I digress. A few weeks ago, while flying back from Europe, I revisited the first The Accountant, a movie I was lukewarm on originally (“low-energy, awkwardly paced”) but enjoyed much more the second time around. It is based on a weird concept: companies bring in an autistic savant to help them analyze what’s wrong with their books. Oh, and he’s also a highly trained, John Wick-level assassin because his military dad wanted him to be. Oh, and his brother is too.
The Accountant 2, ironically, largely abandons the accountant elements, turning Affleck’s Christian Wolff into a crime-oriented crime consultant who can look at a board of pictures and clues and deduce the pattern, while also relying on a team of neurodivergent geniuses who hack computer systems from afar. Essentially, autism has become a superpower, much to the chagrin of RFK Jr.
Returning director Gavin O’Connor and writer Bill Dubuque clearly want to turn these movies into a buddy action franchise headlined by Affleck and Jon Bernthal, with an emphasis on over-the-top escapades and added humor. I don’t quite see it, but if subsequent films, should they happen, operate at the quality of The Accountant 2, they’ll make for entertaining if unnecessary distractions from the day to day misery of our horrid lives.
As long as you don’t think too hard about what’s going on or how the pieces all connect or who exactly the bad guys are or why they are holding a bunch of kids in a Mexican compound or how an average-looking Mexican migrant got into a horrible, face-destroying accident and somehow emerged as a super hot assassin (Daniella Pineda), The Accountant 2 is a lot of fun.
O’Connor (who also directed Miracle, Warrior, and The Way Back, among other quality productions) delivers some strong and satisfying action, highlighted by an explosive climax set outside Juarez. An autistic Affleck makes for a pretty good action hero, oddly, while it’s less surprising that Bernthal can pull off violent, R-rated combat effectively (he is The Punisher, after all).
The added comedy is hit or miss, but generally enjoyable. While the OG had some humor, largely tied to Affleck’s socially awkward exchanges with Anna Kendrick and others, The Accountant 2 leans in much more heavily. The extended speed dating scene is amusing though overly long, an attribute that applies throughout. There is a long sequence where an extremely angry Bernthal walks around in a hotel room with his bulge bulging through his underwear (my girlfriend would like to speed date with Bernthal, I imagine)–he’s angry because he can’t get his pet corgi puppy two weeks early. While each comedic scene evokes some chuckles, Dubuque (who also created and wrote Ozark) over-writes most of them and doesn’t entirely figure out how to blend his jokes into the overall world he has created; they seemed added late in the process and could have been cut shorter. As a result, The Accountant 2 suffers from some minor pacing issues at times.
The Accountant 2 isn’t groundbreaking by any means, but effective action and passionate performances from Affleck and especially Bernthal makes it a worthwhile venture. The numbers may reveal it doesn’t operate at full efficiency, but the ROI to see it is there.
Review by Erik Samdahl.
