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The Accountant (2016 film)

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The Accountant
Theatrical release poster
Directed byGavin O'Connor
Written byBill Dubuque
Starring
CinematographySeamus McGarvey
Edited byRichard Pearson
Music byMark Isham
Distributed byWarner Bros. Pictures
Release dates
  • October 10, 2016 (2016-10-10) (TCL Chinese Theatre)
  • October 14, 2016 (2016-10-14) (United States)
Running time
128 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$44 million[2]
Box office$155.2 million[2]

The Accountant is a 2016 American crime thriller film directed by Gavin O'Connor, written by Bill Dubuque and starring Ben Affleck, Anna Kendrick, J. K. Simmons, Jon Bernthal, Jeffrey Tambor, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, and John Lithgow. The storyline follows a small-town Illinois certified public accountant with high-functioning autism[3] who actually makes his living uncooking the books of dangerous criminal organizations around the world that are experiencing internal embezzlement.

The Accountant premiered in Los Angeles on October 10, 2016 and was theatrically released in the United States on October 14, 2016 by Warner Bros. Pictures. The film received mixed reviews from critics and grossed $155 million worldwide. A sequel is currently in development.

Plot

As a child, Chris Wolff is diagnosed with a high-functioning form of autism and offered an opportunity to live at Harbor Neuroscience Institute in New Hampshire. Chris works on a puzzle while his parents meet with the director and nearly explodes when the last piece is missing, until another girl, Justine, wordlessly hands it to him. Chris' father declines the offer of a sensory friendly environment, believing that Chris must overcome the hardships inherent in his condition. Overwhelmed, Chris' mother abandons him, his younger brother Braxton, and their overbearing father, an army officer in Psychological Operations. Their father embarks on a brutal regimen of stoicism and martial arts training for both brothers.

In the present, Chris works as a forensic accountant unmasking insider financial deceptions, often for criminal and terrorist enterprises. His clients are brokered over the phone by the Voice, an unidentified woman who calls Chris "Dreamboat". After Chris helps a local farmer with his taxes in his small storefront office, the man offers the use of his farm for fishing, and Chris replies that he likes to shoot. Chris keeps a weapons cache in a vintage Airstream locked in storage, sparsely furnished but hung with rare paintings, drawers filled with rare comics, gold bricks, and cash.

Ray King, the director of FinCEN, is pursuing Chris, who is known by the alias "The Accountant". King blackmails data analyst Marybeth Medina, threatening to reveal her sealed juvenile crime records and destroy her career, to help him locate The Accountant. King's only leads are Chris' numerous cover names and his military prison number, 831.

Chris is hired by the company's founder and CEO, Lamar Blackburn and his sister Rita, to audit the Living Robotics Corporation after their in-house accountant Dana Cummings spots discrepancies. The CFO Ed Chilton is dismissive and indignant. Chris is impressed by Dana's acumen after she works all night to deliver the records for his audit and they start to connect when they meet again accidentally at lunchtime. Despite Chris' reticence he is impressed with her intellect and attracted to her, and when Dana makes a backhanded statement about the painting Dogs Playing Poker, Chris says it's funny because it's incongruous. He in turn works overnight and determines that over $61 million has been embezzled from the company but refuses to speculate on the identity of the culprit when Rita arrives in the morning. That night, Ed, who is diabetic, is forced by a hitman to commit suicide from an insulin overdose. As a result Lamar dismisses Chris and pays off his contract, claiming Ed's death was a suicide, leaving Chris distraught because he is not allowed to finish.

Medina analyzes an old audio recording of Chris killing nine members of the Gambino crime family. She isolates Chris' voice and hears him repeating the nursery rhyme Solomon Grundy like a mantra, and the techs tell her his cadence is characteristic of autism, along with avoidance of eye contact. Images of Lou (Lewis) Carroll, one of the identities Chris has used, lead her to look at the names of other famed mathematicians like Carl Gauss, and his current identity, Chris Wolff. Using IRS records, the trail leads her to his storefront office in a Plainfield, Illinois strip mall, where his partnership in the neighboring businesses allow him to launder his own money while making large donations to the Harbor Neuroscience Institute.

A team of killers go to the farm to take out Chris after Ed's suicide, where he quickly dispatches them all, the last one revealing that Dana is the next target. Rather than retrieving the Airstream and changing locations and identities as instructed by the Voice, he goes to Dana, burning through a second team of killers before taking her with him to the storage unit. Refusing to wait outside while Chris rearms, Dana enters the trailer and recognizes the paintings, discovering the contents of the drawers before being caught by Chris. He takes her to a fancy hotel, and as they talk he realizes the Robotics embezzlers had a scheme like Crazy Eddie's. When he goes to Rita's he finds her dead, exposing Lamar as the mastermind.

The FBI agents scour Chris' home and King explains to Medina that Chris went to Leavenworth after a brawl at his estranged mother's funeral, where his father was killed as well. There he was mentored into accounting by Francis Silverberg (Jeffrey Tambor), a Gambino family accountant turned FBI informant. Silverberg was brutally killed by the Gambinos after he was released, and Chris in turn killed the nine Gambinos. King was surveilling the house when Chris arrived to take his revenge, but Chris let King go after asking him if he was a good father. King then starts getting information from the Voice, and rises to become director. King tells Medina someone has to take over when he retires, and the Voice calls the house with instructions.

Chris attacks Lamar's mansion and kills the mercenary guards led by the hitman. During the shootout, the hitman hears Chris repeating the nursery rhyme and recognizes his brother. Braxton attacks Chris, blaming him for their father's death. In a brief detente in the fight Chris tells Braxton he has to finish this, and when Lamar interrupts Chris shoots him on the spot. Chris agrees to meet Braxton in a week, saying he will find him.

At the Harbor Neuroscience Institute, the current director is the father of the adult Justine, who Chris met as a child. Justine uses a state-of-the-art computer to communicate with an electronic voice, saying "Hello, Dreamboat," to a young boy whose parents are meeting with the director. Chris is last seen driving over a bridge with the Airstream in tow, and his Jackson Pollock painting is delivered to Dana hidden under cover of the Dogs Playing Poker painting A Friend in Need.

Cast

Production

On November 12, 2014, Variety reported that Anna Kendrick was in early talks to co-star in the film, alongside Affleck.[4] Later that day, J. K. Simmons was also announced as being in talks to join the cast.[5] On November 14, 2014, Jon Bernthal was also in talks.[6] On January 6, 2015, Variety reported that Cynthia Addai-Robinson was added to the cast.[7] On January 14, 2015, Jeffrey Tambor[8] and John Lithgow[9] were added to the cast of the film. Lithgow had previously appeared in another thriller about autism, Silent Fall (1994).

Filming began on January 19, 2015 in Atlanta, Georgia.[10][11] On March 16–20, filming was taking place at the Georgia Institute of Technology.[12] The film ends with the Accountant driving on Bethany Bridge over Lake Allatoona, Georgia.

Fight choreography

The action fighting sequences in the film featured the Indonesian martial art Pencak Silat.[13][14][15]

Marketing

On July 9, 2015, a year before the film's release, it had received graphic novelization published by Vertigo, a limited comic book imprint owned by Warner Bros. Pictures.[16]

Release

The film was released on October 14, 2016.[17] Before that, Warner Bros. had scheduled it for January 29, 2016, later moving it to October 7, 2016, before moving it back another week.[18][19]

Box office

The Accountant grossed $86.3 million in the United States and Canada and $68.9 million in other countries for a worldwide total of $155.2 million, against a production budget of $44 million.[2]

The Accountant was released alongside Max Steel and Kevin Hart: What Now?, and was expected to gross $20–25 million from 3,332 theaters in its opening weekend, although the studio was projecting a conservative $15 million opening.[20] The film made $1.35 million from its Thursday night previews, more than Affleck's Gone Girl ($1.2 million) in 2014. It grossed $9.1 million on its first day and $24.7 million in its opening weekend, finishing first at the box office and was the second highest-debut for a thriller of Affleck's career, behind Gone Girl ($37.5 million).[21] In its second weekend, the film grossed $13.6 million (a drop of 44.8%), finishing 4th at the box office.[22]

Critical response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 52% based on 240 reviews, with an average rating of 5.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The Accountant writes off a committed performance from Ben Affleck, leaving viewers with a scattershot action thriller beset by an array of ill-advised deductions."[23] On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating, the film has a score of 51 out of 100, based on 45 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[24] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.[25]

Vince Mancini of Uproxx gave the film a positive review, writing, "It’s transparent in its attempt both to pimp a future franchise and give autistic kids their own superhero. There’s a genuine sweetness to the latter that converts me on the former. Headshots, math problems, and pained social interactions? Sign me up. Of the two movies Ben Affleck has been in so far this year, The Accountant and Batman V Superman, The Accountant has by far the most franchise potential."[26] Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film 3.5 out of 4 stars, saying: "Madness abounds in The Accountant, an intense, intricate, darkly amusing and action-infused thriller that doesn’t always add up but who cares, it’s BIG FUN."[27]

Richard Brody of The New Yorker panned the film, stating: "This thrill-free thriller...piles up plotlines like an overbuilt house of cards that comes crashing down at the first well-earned guffaw of ridicule."[28]

Accolades

Award Date of ceremony Category Recipient(s) Result Ref(s)
Jupiter Awards March 29, 2017 Best International Film The Accountant Nominated [29]
Best International Actor Ben Affleck Nominated
Saturn Awards June 28, 2017 Best Thriller Film The Accountant Nominated [30]

Sequel

In June 2017, it was announced Warner Bros. was developing a sequel, with Affleck, Dubuque and O’Connor all scheduled to return.[31]

See also

References

  1. ^ "The Accountant (15)". British Board of Film Classification. August 30, 2016. Retrieved August 30, 2016.
  2. ^ a b c "The Accountant (2016)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved April 13, 2017.
  3. ^ Anderson, Jeffrey M. (October 14, 2016). "The Accountant Movie Review". Common Sense Media. Retrieved November 5, 2016.
  4. ^ Kroll, Justin (November 12, 2014). "Anna Kendrick In Talks to Join Ben Affleck in 'The Accountant'". Variety. Retrieved November 13, 2014.
  5. ^ Ford, Rebecca; Kit, Borys (November 12, 2014). "J.K. Simmons Joining Ben Affleck in 'The Accountant'". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved November 13, 2014.
  6. ^ Sneider, Jeff (November 14, 2014). "'Fury' Star Jon Bernthal in Talks to Join Ben Affleck in 'The Accountant'". TheWrap. Retrieved November 15, 2014.
  7. ^ Kroll, Justin. "'Arrow' Actress Cynthia Addai-Robinson Joins 'The Accountant'". Variety. Retrieved January 6, 2015.
  8. ^ Kit, Borys (January 14, 2015). "Jeffrey Tambor Joins Ben Affleck Thriller 'The Accountant'". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved January 15, 2015.
  9. ^ Fleming Jr, Mike (January 14, 2015). "John Lithgow Joins Ben Affleck on 'The Accountant' Ledger". Deadline.com. Retrieved January 16, 2015.
  10. ^ "'The Accountant', starring Ben Affleck, begins filming in Atlanta next week". onlocationvacations.com. January 13, 2015. Retrieved January 15, 2015.
  11. ^ "On the Set for 1/19/15: Kevin Spacey Begins on Elvis & Nixon, Director Joel Edgerton Starts on Blumhouse Film & More". ssninsider.com. January 19, 2015. Retrieved January 20, 2015.
  12. ^ "'The Accountant', starring Ben Affleck, is filming at Georgia Tech all week". onlocationvacations.com. March 16, 2015. Retrieved March 19, 2015.
  13. ^ "Ben Affleck mastered Indonesian fighting style for new film". TV3.
  14. ^ "The Accountant: Interview With Director Gavin O'Connor". October 15, 2016.
  15. ^ Video on YouTube @13:19.
  16. ^ "Ben Affleck's 'The Accountant' Is Getting Its Own Comic Book". ScreenCrush.
  17. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (March 8, 2016). "Warner Bros. Shifts Release Dates For 'The Accountant', 'Going In Style' & 'The House'". Deadline.com. Retrieved March 10, 2016.
  18. ^ Hayden, Erik (August 7, 2015). "Ben Affleck's 'Accountant' and 'Live By Night' Pushed Back by Warner Bros". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved August 10, 2015.
  19. ^ McNary, Dave (May 19, 2015). "Ben Affleck's 'The Accountant' Set for Jan. 29". Variety. Retrieved May 23, 2015.
  20. ^ "Ben Affleck's 'The Accountant' is expected to unseat 'Girl On the Train' in slow box office weekend". Los Angeles Times.
  21. ^ "'The Accountant' Calculates $24.7M Opening; 'Max Steel' Rusts". Deadline.com.
  22. ^ Anthony D'Alessandro (October 23, 2016). "'Madea' To Push Well Past $27M As 'Jack Reacher' Takes $22M to $23M; 'Joneses' Can't Keep Up – Sun. AM Update". Deadline.com. Retrieved October 23, 2016.
  23. ^ "The Accountant (2016)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved June 21, 2017.
  24. ^ "The Accountant Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved November 8, 2016.
  25. ^ "CinemaScore". cinemascore.com – via Twitter.
  26. ^ Mancini, Vince (October 12, 2016). "'The Accountant' Is The Year's Best Superhero Movie And Probably Deserves A Sequel". Uproxx. Retrieved October 12, 2016.
  27. ^ "'The Accountant': Ben Affleck an entertaining transaction hero". Chicago Sun Times. October 12, 2016.
  28. ^ "The Accountant". The New Yorker. Retrieved July 11, 2017.
  29. ^ "The Jupiter Awards 2017". Jupiter Awards. Retrieved December 26, 2016. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  30. ^ McNary, Dave (March 2, 2017). "Saturn Awards Nominations 2017: 'Rogue One,' 'Walking Dead' Lead". Variety. Retrieved March 3, 2017. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |work= (help)
  31. ^ Fleming, Jr., Mike (June 26, 2017). "Ben Affleck & Gavin O'Connor Back For 'The Accountant' Sequel; Will Jon Bernthal Return?". Deadline.com.
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