The Accountant 2
Cast: Ben Affleck, Jon Bernthal, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, J.K. Simmons, Daniella Pineda, Alison Robertson, Robert Morgan, Grant Harvey
Director: Gavin O`Connor
Rating: * * 1/2
Runtime: 124 min.
“The Accountant 2” is a buddy action movie with two polar opposite brothers unexpectedly teaming up against a ruthless network of killers who will stop at nothing to keep their secrets buried.
In the original film, the reclusive Christian Wolff, the autistic tax professional, also known as The Accountant, after taking down a conniving businessman and reuniting with his brother Braxton (Jon Bernthal), absconds from Illinois and sets out on the open road. Forget the high-functioning autism, The Accountant 2 focuses on the relationship between Christian and his brother Brax, presenting a fraternal buddy comedy with thriller dynamics.
We reunite with a Christian who is now living in Idaho and searching for love. We see Christian looking to impress the babes by trying on different suits for a speed dating event. But nothing seems to work out.
To start off – Years after the action of the first film, Raymond King (J.K. Simmons), who is following the clues around the disappearance of a family of three, meets secretly with a mysterious woman named Anaïs (Daniella Pineda). But the armed men in the building and outside it seem prepared for the meet-up and to attack them. They escape the building following a well-staged fight, but King ends up the victim of a sniper shot in the street – but not before he scrawls “Find the accountant” on his arm.
Wolff (Ben Affleck) recruits his estranged and highly lethal brother, Brax (Jon Bernthal), and in partnership with Marybeth Medina(Cynthia Addai-Robinson), uncovers a deadly conspiracy, but before that, the trio unravel the truth about Anais and her connection to a mysterious photograph.
Bill Dubuque’s script wants us to believe that Wolff, just by looking through King’s wall of evidence, is able to connect the dots that no one else can see. That doesn’t seem very plausible, the way it`s played out. The mystery at the core of “The Accountant 2”, involving human trafficking and immigration problems, is not really gravitating.
The action is just not overwhelming enough to overcome this film’s deficiencies. The pacing fails to build enough momentum. O’Connor’s tonal confusion is quite evident when he tries for greater mileage with the brother buddy comedy. The story feels convoluted, and the plotting, lopsided. Affleck and Bernthal show off some eye-pleasing chemistry together, but are unable to offset the confusion that follows. The sibling dynamic is well laid out, but the action fails to liven it up. This is billed as an actioner, so Christian, Braxton, and Medina shed heat in a runaway battle with arms and ammunition. The plot has very few surprises or twists, and there’s no sense of mystery either. Director Gavin O’Connor’s action set-pieces fail to leave an impact.
The action feels routine. There’s nothing here to give you an adrenaline rush. The villains don’t have much scope to display their menace. There’s no depth or coherence in this telling, which leads to an ending that is anticlimactic. The Accountant 2 is a formulaic action saga lacking in tension, with minimised stakes. The script is not worthy of the otherwise interesting lead character and that’s the fundamental problem with this film.