A Family Account

Considering its lead character is (among many other things) a mathematical genius, it sure took the film makers a long time to crunch the numbers on a sequel to 2016's "The Accountant". Still, better late than never and The Accountant 2 is a blast, even if it is a very different film than its predecessor.

Ben Affleck returns as Christian Wolf, an autistic accountant \ one man army who is about the only person more dangerous than the people he cooks the books for. When Raymond King (J.K Simmons) is killed, his successor as Deputy Director of the Treasury Department, Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson), calls in Wolf to help her crack the case her former boss was working on. It isn't long before Jon Bernthal's Braxton (Christian's estranged brother) joins the party and the trio embark on an absolutely non sensical investigation involving human traffickers and acquired savant syndrome.

The first movie padded out it central story with a side plot of Simmons and Addai-Robinson trying to unravel the mystery of who The Accountant was and flashbacks that told his backstory. There is none of that this time round and attempts to add intrigue and twists into the plot are half hearted. The plot exists solely to drive the characters forward and often doesn't even do that. There is no reason Christian would decide this is the job he needs to call his brother in on and we don't get much of him using his genius to find the patterns. What we do get, is a tonne of Christian and Braxton hanging out, as The Accountant 2 is more of a buddy crime thriller than anything else. This totally works as the chemistry between Affleck and Bernthal is off the charts. This film makes it clear Braxton has his only mental issues, primarily revolving around abandonment, and really wants his big brother's validation. This is first shown in a funny and slightly sad scene where he has a meltdown over his attempts to buy a puppy. His manic energy contrasted to Affleck's bemused disassociation proves constantly entertaining, whether they are trying to keep a lid on their violent tendencies in front of the government agent or taking a break to indulge in some line dancing. The breezy fun of chilling with the brothers easily makes up for the lack of action and vague stakes.

If the first film was about how Christians unique brain worked when dealing with jobs and numbers, this time out we are more focused on how it impacts his relationships with people. With that in mind, the movie deals a lot with neurodivergence. It isn't for me to say whether it is an accurate or tasteful representation, but it does feel like everything is trying to be respectful. It toes the line between letting us laugh at awkward situations without ever making him the butt of the joke. It also avoids the condescending tone of going too far the other way, sure, autism lets him see things other can't but it makes his life harder in many other ways. Mainly it's just fun to see characters like this get the chance to banter in a big, glossy thriller where their differences are a wrinkle rather than the entire point.

Apart from a contrived (but entertaining) final shoot out, The Accountant 2 is less action focused and much more knowingly comedic than its predecessor. Whether that makes it better or not depends on what you are looking for, but when the central pairing is this enjoyable they can keep the movies coming.

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