Film Review: The Accountant 2 is ‘wildly entertaining’
Christian and Braxton are hilarious together as they try to sort out their issues, says Cara.
In 2016, Ben Affleck introduced audiences to Christian Wolff in the film The Accountant. Christian is autistic and exceptionally gifted in mathematics. He works as an accountant at a small firm, but that is only the surface of his character.
In private, he uses his extraordinary math skills to assist some of the world’s most notorious criminals. He operates under the alias “The Accountant.”
Much like Robin Hood, Christian uses the money he earns to support a special education school for autistic children and also secretly shares information with Ray King (J.K. Simmons) from the U.S. Treasury Department.
There is another side to Christian; he is a highly trained soldier, equal to most special forces operators.
He and his brother Braxton (Jon Bernthal) had an erratic upbringing from their military father who trained them to be lethal warriors.
The film made little sense, but it was entertaining.
Despite the mixed response from critics, I gave it three stars, it still did well at the box office. Now Christian is back in The Accountant 2.
In the first film, Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) was an up-and-coming Treasury Department analyst tasked with discovering the true identity of the Accountant by her boss, Ray King.
Marybeth has moved up the ranks in this new outing, and Ray has retired, but it is not out of the game. He had an unsolved case that he couldn’t let go of. Now, he is working privately to try and solve it.
When Ray gets too close to the truth, he is assassinated by gunmen, but before he dies, he manages to hide a note from Marybeth which says, “Find the Accountant”.
Previously, finding the Accountant was not easy, but when word reached Christian that Ray is dead, he makes himself known to Marybeth. She doesn’t want to work with someone who she views as a criminal, but it is the only way to find out who killed Ray.
Christian realises he can’t do this job alone, so he calls Braxton.
The two brothers are estranged. Braxton doesn’t want to drop everything and run to help his brother, but he wants to reconnect, so he turns up like a wounded bear, prickly but desperate for attention.
A lot of things happen next that I am not going to get into.
Much of the plot doesn’t make any sense, which it shares with the first film, but unlike the first one, this one is wildly entertaining.
Christian and Braxton are hilarious together as they try to sort out their issues.
Childhood gripes and old arguments reemerge, but they also share moving moments as they learn to be brothers again.
Bernthal is particularly good as a cold-as-ice assassin who just wants to be hugged by his brother.
A film that doesn’t make sense shouldn’t get four stars, but a brilliant, high-octane final act and Affleck and Bernthal’s chemistry more than make up for the plot holes in this wildly entertaining romp.
The Accountant 2, in cinemas now, cert 15a.
