The Accountant

Overview

Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck) is a mathematical genius who works as a financial consultant for criminal organizations eager to hide their dirty money. While being investigated by the Treasury Department, Wolff agrees to help an accounting clerk at a robotics firm (Anna Kendrick) look into fraud at her company, but the assignment will prove far more dangerous than he could have ever anticipated. J.K. Simmons, Jon Bernthal, Jeffrey Tambor, and John Lithgow co-star in this thriller directed by Gavin O'Connor (Warrior, Pride and Glory).

Product Details

Release Date:	01/10/2017
UPC:	0883929480975
Original Release:	2016
Rating:	R
Source:	Warner Home Video
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	2:08:00

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Ben Affleck	Christian Wolff
Anna Kendrick	Dana Cummings
J.K. Simmons	Ray King
Jon Bernthal	Brax
Jeffrey Tambor	Francis Silverberg
Cynthia Addai-Robinson	Marybeth Medina
John Lithgow	Lamar Blackburn
Jean Smart	Rita Blackburn
Andy Umberger	Ed Chilton
Alison Wright	Justine
Robert C. Treveiler	Young Chris' Father
Mary Kraft	Young Chris' Mother
Seth Lee	Young Chris
Jake Presley	Little Brother
Izzy Fenech	Young Justine
Ron Prather	Frank Rice
Gary Basaraba	Don
Fernando Chien	Sorkis
Alex Collins	Simon Dewey
Tait Fletcher	Thug #1
Curtis Lyons	Thug #2
Buster Reeves	Alpha Merc
Ron Yuan	Pencak Silat Master
Sheila Maddox	ZZZ Receptionist
Malachi Malik	Detention Center Guard
Gregory Alan Williams	Treasury Secretary,Dolores Rice
Kelly Collins Lintz	Helen/Reporter #1
Jason MacDonald	Reporter #2
Victor McCay	IRS Agent
Michael Beasley	FBI Agent In Charge
Viviana Chavez	FBI Agent #1
Greg Sproles	Sniper #1
Alex Huynh	Bobby/Sniper #2
Ray McKinnon	Actor
Walton Goggins	Actor
Eddie King	Actor
Gary Richardson	Actor
Daeg Faerch	French Bully
Zachary James Rukavina	Robotics Lab Patient
Dennis Keiffer	Tactical Mercenary
David Anthony Buglione	Little Tony Bazzano,Little Tony Bazzano
Jason Davis	Neurologist,Reporter #3
Jade Halley Bartlett	Harbor Neuroscience Nurse
Joe Hardy Jr.	Autistic Boy's Father
Carrie Walrond	Austistic Boy's Mother
Roman Spink	6 Year Old Boy
Rick Moose	Dying Mobster
Nick Arapoglou	Tech #1 Homeland Security
Johnny Giacalone	FBI Agent #2
Richard Pearson	Gordon Amundson (FBI Language Services)
Eric Goins	UPS Delivery Man
David DeVries	Widower
Randall Taylor	Funeral Director
Scott Poythress	Deputy
Nicholas Martin	French Teen Bully
Samantha Janco	Reporter #4
Joseph Levine	Mafia Enforcer #3
Christian Mendoza	Maintenance Worker
Robert T. McKnight, ll	Robotics Lab Patient #2
Angel Giuffria	Robotics Lab Patient #3
Robert Kistenberg	Robotics Lab Patient #3
Robert Hatch	Funeral Home Attendee
Mark Isham	Composer

Technical Credits

Bill Dubuque

Buster Reeves	Stunts
Gavin O'Connor	Director,Executive Producer
Lynette Howell Taylor	Producer
Bill Dubuque	Screenwriter
Jamie Patricof	Executive Producer,Producer
Marty P. Ewing	Executive Producer,Producer
Steven Mnuchin	Executive Producer,Producer
Greg Crawford	Sound Effects
Andy Malcolm	Sound Effects
Scott Einbinder	Special Effects
Ann Scibelli	Sound/Sound Designer
Charlie Campagna	Sound/Sound Designer
Jeanne McCarthy	Casting
Nicole Abellera	Casting
Mark Williams	Producer

Editorial Reviews

The first time we see Chris, he's a twitchy kid (played by Seth Lee) working on a jigsaw puzzle in a neurologist's waiting room, while inside his parents are receiving an explanation for all of his weird tics: the rocking; the blowing on his fingertips; the obsessive, savant-like desire to organize everything according to patterns only he can see. Flash forward years later, and the standoffish kid who was hysterical over a missing puzzle piece has become a strip-mall tax consultant (now played by Ben Affleck) helping local farmers maximize their deductions. He's more gifted than his humble station suggests, however, and a hot new tech start-up led by philanthropic roboticist Lamar Black (John Lithgow) hires him to go through the books and find out whether a discrepancy spotted by a chitchatty junior accountant (Anna Kendrick) is a bellwether for a larger money bleed. Jigsaw puzzles or financial ledgers, they're all the same to Chris -- but when the company cuts his fine-toothed investigation short once they've seen enough, he refuses to drop the case before it's all figured out. Meanwhile, the Treasury Department is on the trail of a mysterious figure nicknamed "the Accountant" -- a brilliant financial forensicist hired by criminal organizations to ferret out revenue leaks without attracting the law. The Accountant is slippery, skilled at combat, and preternaturally gifted with numbers, and he covers his tracks impeccably -- until novice Treasury analyst Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson), working with Treasury director Ray King (J.K. Simmons), pecks the first small crack in his elaborate array of disposable identities when she realizes that the aliases "Carl Gauss," "Louis Carroll," and "Christian Wolff" share something in common. It's fashionable to pile on Ben Affleck, an activity that has been film criticism's favorite all-season sport for more than two decades, but with The Accountant he reminds us once again that he is a genuine talent. He delivers an authentic portrayal of an autistic character who's more Batman than Rain Man, a grim stuffed shirt who must reference a placard of emoticons to puzzle out what people's facial expressions mean, who wears Sriracha and Evel Knievel t-shirts on his day off, and who unwinds at the end of the workday with a ritual that's equal parts shiatsu and Abu Ghraib. Affleck is also surrounded by such great actors as Lithgow, Simmons, and Jean Smart, in a continuation of 2016's refreshing trend of casting the net wide for worthy yet almost forgotten older talent. The main hiccup with The Accountant is that so much of its plot is moved forward by exposition and flashbacks. Every scene has a dumbfounded onlooker mouthing the kind of say-nothing lines that get 86-ed by screenwriting professors in freshman year: "What is this?"; "Who are you?"; "How do you know this?"; "Why do you have that?" There's no pleasure in watching a fascinating character like "The Accountant" be stymied by comparative dummies. What is otherwise an interesting blend of action thriller and character study ends up with the same problem as Breach (2007), the dramatization of the Robert Hanssen FBI scandal, in which the shrewd and fascinating baddie played by always-a-treat Chris Cooper was more interesting than the bore of a protagonist assigned to tail him. (It also doesn't help that The Accountant's grand, dun-DUUUN revelation at the climax about the true identity of a key character is so obvious as to be anticlimactic.) The movie's quirks are tantalizing, and while the end result is flawed, getting there is satisfying enough that you'll want to see if novice screenwriter Bill Dubuque does better the next time out. See your task to completion, Dubuque.