Reviews

It’s been nine years since the release of Ben Affleck’s action thriller The Accountant but the much-delayed follow-up has finally arrived.

In the sequel, Ben Affleck returns as Christian Wolff, an autistic accountant who helps launder money for criminals and has a sideline as an assassin.

When one of her associates is killed, U.S. Treasury agent Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) contacts Wolff for help.

Her associate was investigating a case involving a missing family and inadvertently became caught up in a major conspiracy.

Once he delves deeper into the case, Wolff realises he needs some muscle in the form of his estranged brother Braxton (Jon Bernthal).

The film’s biggest strength is the buddy comedy chemistry between Affleck and Bernthal. They have a great rapport and bounce off each other in such an entertaining way.

While their action sequences are solid, some of the best scenes feature them just hanging out.

The brothers couldn’t be more different – Braxton is loud, secretly sensitive and thinks with his fists, while Chris is buttoned-up, introverted and serious and does not read social cues particularly well.

Bernthal has the flashier role with more comedy, violence and things to get off his chest, but Affleck is funny too as a character who has no sense of social skills and sparing people’s feelings.

The portrayal of autism is not remotely nuanced – autistic people are all shown as maths or computer geniuses here – but you can’t really expect a mindless action thriller to be able to represent the whole spectrum of behaviours.

However, that’s not the film’s only problem – the central conspiracy is overcomplicated and not as intriguing as it should have been, plus a major character revelation towards the end is so ridiculous that you can’t take it seriously.

Despite this, The Accountant 2 is a solid thriller with great action sequences and two entertaining lead performances from Affleck and Bernthal.

In cinemas from Friday 25th April.

By Hannah Wales.

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