SXSW 2025 Review:
"The Accountant 2"
Ben Affleck’s long and extensive résumé includes a few franchise films, but beyond his Batman heroics, he has not revisited any his original or I.P.-established characters in any meaningful way outside of a cameo or two. Until now. In The Accountant 2, Affleck suits up again as the autistic numbers cruncher who can handle a AK-27 as well as he does completing a 1040 form. And it understandable why Affleck would want to return as Christian Wolff. This is a challenging role that demands Affleck gets inside the head of a deeply complex character with little outward expression. As with The Accountant, Affleck physically articulates Christian’s inner voice in a subtle and concise manner that remains true to an enigma wrapped in a riddle who adheres to a very specific moral code. And while Christian may speak in an even and deliberate manner, Affleck continues to find humor of Christian’s way of thinking and viewing the world. Affleck is as comfort playing this oft-misunderstood man of few words as the forensic accountant is taking money from criminals to fund a neuroscience treatment center. More important, The Accountant 2 allows Christian to evolve beyond his social outsider status of the first film, providing Affleck with greater opportunity to explore what drives a man who thrives in both the worlds of finance and crime. The Accountant 2 takes place years after the events of its predecessor—hence the dispensing of Anna Kendrick’s damsel in distress—and finds Christian still alone, still living in his Airstream R.V., still making big bucks off the bad guys. All this changes with the assassination of semi-retired Treasury agent Raymond King (J.K. Simmons). Christian comes out of hiding at the behest of King’s successor, Marybeth Medina (the returning Cynthia Addai-Robinson), to solve the murder. Knowing he’s up against a dangerous human-trafficking organization, Christian recruits his estranged brother Braxton (Jon Bernthal) to help him take down King’s killers. Screenwriter Bill Dubuque does not need to fill in any gaps between the accountant and the hitman because the brothers have not seen each other in years and remain as unfamiliar with each they did at the end of The Accountant, when they joined forces during the climatic shootout. Braxton genuinely wants a relationship with Christian, who seems unsure of how to bond with the brother with whom he shares a traumatic childhood. And The Accountant 2 primarily focuses on how the brothers can successfully form and navigate a relationship in the face of gunfire. If Christian is quiet, introverted, but painfully blunt, Braxton is loud, impetus, and unpretentious. This obviously results in some amusing odd couple moments, most notably when Braxton takes Christian to a country music bar and the latter discover an affinity for line dancing. Despite Braxton’s shoot-first, talk-later attitude, Bernthal doesn’t allow his assassin for hire to be defined by his penchant for violence. Bernthal brings a vulnerability to Braxton that makes his openness to let Christian into his life feel both genuine and essential. He knows they are cut from the same cloth despite their obvious differences. Gavin O’Connor, who directed both The Accountant and Affleck’s criminally underseen The Way Back, perfectly balances the inherent drama to be found in this developing relationship between siblings against their action-filled hunt for the men responsible for King’s murder. The shootouts are executed in clean and crisp fashion. And O’Connor slowly raises the stakes to ensure the climax is as tense as possible. Connor and screenwriter also make the wise decision of take Cynthia Addai-Robinson’s Treasury agent Marybeth Medina out of the office, where she was stuck in The Accountant, and out into the field. Addai-Robinson holds her against Affleck and Bernthal at all times, so Marybeth never feels like the third wheel. Cowboy Bebop’s Daniella Pineda also makes her presence felt as a killer with a mysterious past. Oddly, while there is plenty of sibling bonding and gunplay in The Accountant 2, there isn’t much in the way of accounting. Sure, Wolff’s investigation begins with him following the money. But after that, Christian puts down his calculator and picks up his firearms. Yes, this is a minor quibble, but watching Christian calculate his way through a problem was one of the great pleasures of The Accountant. But The Accountant 2 puts Christian’s unique mind to work in other ways, and the result is a sequel that rightly places blood over money. Posted: March 17, 2025. Web site: https://www.amazon.com/salp/theaccountant2?hhf |
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