Expectations can be an unfortunate thing. Over the years, my
fondness for Ben Affleck’s 2016 thriller, The Accountant, has not waned
so, when I learned that the character was returning for another outing after a
nine-year gap, I was hopeful. Alas, even the calculated reunion of the original
band – director Gavin O’Connor, screenwriter Bill Dubuque, and actors Affleck,
Jon Bernthal, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, and J.K. Simmons – isn’t enough to craft
a worthy follow-up. The problem is evident from the early-going. The movie
works when focused on character interaction and buddy-movie tropes, but the
action elements are perfunctory at best and boring at worst. Bill Dubuque’s
script is never able to balance out the ledger.
The movie gets off to a rousing start, featuring a clandestine
nightclub encounter between retired FinCEN chief-turned-P.I. Raymond King (J.K.
Simmons) and assassin Anais (Daniella Pineda). He has something to tell her
but, beyond giving her a photograph, he doesn’t get very far. A lot of men with
guns are coming for him (or her, or both of them). There’s a fight, a chase,
and a death, and soon King’s former assistant, Treasury Agent Marybeth Medina (Addai-Robinson),
is on the job. The one clue she has takes her into the orbit of someone she found
distasteful when she researched him back in The Accountant: Christian
Wolff, The Accountant. Their reluctant partnership is oil-and-water but
Christian’s unorthodox methods (which include torture) achieve results. Things
get to be too much for Agent Medina, however, when Christian brings his “little”
brother, Braxton (Jon Bernthal), into the mix. Together and apart, the siblings
and Marybeth unravel the truth about Anais and her connection to the mysterious
photograph. If only the solution proved to be as interesting as the mystery.
The thriller aspects of The Accountant 2 lack depth
and cohesion. The villains are poorly drawn and the through-line of the
narrative doesn’t have the necessary heft (even a popcorn flick requires
sufficient emotional stakes to get the viewer to care). The ending is
scattershot and anticlimactic, with some really dumb elements involving a
school bus. Ultimately, there’s a “Is that all there is?” vibe to the entire endeavor.
The story doesn’t justify a two-hour movie.
The hangout stuff almost makes it worthwhile, however. The
chemistry between Affleck’s autistic savant and Bernthal’s brawny Braxton is top-notch
and there are some great standalone scenes between the two that make one forget
how confused the rest of the film is. In one, the two brothers kick back atop
Christian’s mobile home and Braxton asks some pointed questions about their
relationship. In another, the two brothers visit a country-western joint with
entertaining results.
Christian remains a fascinating character. There’s a sense
that exploring his personality is of greater interest to the filmmakers (and Affleck)
than telling a compelling story. The absence of Anna Kendrick (or a
replacement) creates a void. Aside from an amusing early scene in which Christian
attends a speed-dating event and a brief flirtation on the dance floor of the
country-western bar, sex and romance are ignored. Ironically, in attempting to
flesh-out Christian, The Accountant 2 makes him more one-dimensional.
When it arrived in theaters nearly a decade ago, I called The
Accountant a “superhero movie.” This time around, it feels more like one of
the Rambo-type sequels in which the “good guys” go up against impossible odds
and use big guns and bigger cojones to bulldoze their way through an army of “bad
guys.” As well-orchestrated as the opening sequence is, the action is mostly
underwhelming – devoid of tension and often surprisingly poorly presented. The
rushed ending gives the movie an incomplete feel.
Would I like to see another Accountant movie? Only if
there’s a script worthy of the character, because that’s the problem with this
one. When you have someone as inherently interesting as Christian, he needs to
have an arc that makes use of his talents in a way that engages the audience.
That happened in The Accountant but this is a huge step backward. The
gains fail to outweigh the losses.
Accountant 2, The (United States, 2025)