Thursday 10 November 2016

The Accountant

"The Accountant" is a bit of a shemozzle of a film. THere are about four separate films fighting for space here, and most of them are not served particularly well. Ben Affleck's titular accountant is irritatingly cliche - the autistic book-keeper to all kinds of evil-doers who also happens to be an ass-kicking badass with his own complicated (or possibly just wildly confused) moral code.

There's a strong cast here, but most of them, in their various ways, are mildly wasted - Jeffery Tambor gets a scene or two but is less a character than a plot device, Anna Kendrick is adorable and sweet and is completely dumped by the film thirty minutes from the end because the writers have no use for her any more, John Lithgow again is less character than plot functionary, and Jon Benthal has some intersting moments as a potential nemesis before last minute revelations render him kinda ludicrous. JK Simmons and Cynthia Addai-Robinson are in the one interesting thread as the Treasury agents on his trail, but the film they're in really never connects with the rest of the film so much as acts as a device to provide exposition.

Gavin O'Connor's direction doesn't really embrace the ludicrousness of much of the plot so much as tries to make it look prestigious and classy - I may have enjoyed the trashy version of this, but this is nonsense that is trying to pretend to be smart and instead winds up just dull and flat.

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