'The Accountant 2' Review: A Wild Ride That Tries to Kickstart Something New

At times this movie feels like it doesn't necessarily want you to remember the first

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Nearly ten years has passed since the first Accountant debuted. That film was a derivative actioner for most of its runtime before taking a sharp third act turn into director Gavin O’Connor’s brotherly love narratives. It’s a totally fine film that comes of like much of 2016’s movies. It’s surprising it took over eight years to get a sequel to a movie that got middling reviews and a decent box office. It’s also surprising that the movie isn’t coming from the first’s home studio, Warner Bros., but Amazon. And it’s also also surprising that The Accountant 2, at times, is infinitely better than the first. (Trust me, nothing shocks me more than that last one.)

Accountant/assassin Christian Wolff (Affleck) is tasked with trying to find out who murdered former deputy director of the Financial Crimes division, Ray King (J.K. Simmons), Wolff’s contact from the first movie. Because Ray was seemingly investigating a string of murders, Chris must turn to his younger brother, Braxton (Jon Bernthal) for help. The two brothers, still estranged after the events of the first movie, are forced to band together to figure out what’s going on.

Screenwriter Bill Dubuque doesn’t necessarily rectify the problems of the first movie. The action still very derivative, and almost like a severe return to 2016 norms regarding Mexican drug cartels and illegal immigrants, but what shines best is that brotherly love that wasn’t the central thesis of the first feature. When the movie is about two brothers struggling to relate to the outside world and each other it’s heartfelt, it’s fun to watch, and it’s funny as hell. It helps that stars Ben Affleck and Jon Bernthal have such a strong chemistry between them.

O’Connor and cinematographer Seamus McGarvey have some fantastic interplay starting from the first sequence, a polished dance of sequences — shout-out to editor Richard Pearson — that introduces new character, Anaïs (Daniella Pineda), and returning figure Ray. Simmons only gets a few scenes, and his death is forewarned in the trailer, but the fight sequence he gets is incredibly entertaining and will make you afraid of where a pen can be put. (Aside, there is a lot of fighting using everyday objects here. If you need to learn how to turn a garbage bag into a weapon, The Accountant 2 has you covered.) It’s a wonderful, breathless sequence at odds with the middle of the movie.

Little appears to have changed between Chris and Braxton over the last eight years. Chris is still living in an Airstream talking to the nonverbal Justine (weirdly enough played by Allison Robertson here while voiced by Alison Wright, the actress in the first). Braxton is also doing much of the same: killing people while asking surviving victims banal questions and eating their food. But the two understand they have to try to get out in the world.

For Chris, he’s getting out in the dating world. He goes to a speed-dating event where, no surprise, every woman immediately lines up for him. He looks like Ben Affleck, after all! But upon sitting down they’re all turned off by his talk of taxes and other bizarre topics. The way McGarvey shoots it and Affleck plays it — slapping on a wide, toothy, and painful looking grin — is hilarious. Braxton, for his part, wants to adopt a puppy named Greg. He’s just very impatient about the whole pet adoption process, culminating with him spending several minutes in front of the mirror (in his underwear, no less) attempting to modulate his voice and tone to talk to the adoption company. Again, scenes like this utilize the comic timing and persona of Bernthal to great effect.

You miss these moments when the initial plot, the murder of Ray King, calls the audience back to it. The crux of the plot is messy, to say the least. Outside of King’s murder there’s added layers of a missing family from El Salvador that all culminates with a third-act Call of Duty-esque shootout on a drug compound in Juarez. There are moments where the movie unintentionally comes off as jingoistic but mostly it just seems dated, like a plot ripped from a sequel to Sicario. The addition of another super-assassin in Pineda’s character makes a movie that’s already very silly even sillier.

The first movie went long on the autism plotline, not only to try to justify a neurotypical Affleck playing the part but to also emphasize that everyone did their research on it. Weirdly enough Accountant 2 does its damndest not only make autism look so cool anyone should beg to have it, but does just as much to say maybe it’s not talking about autism? Affleck puts on a bizarre speaking cadence this go-round that was not in the first film, specifically with any “p” sounds. It’s so prominent and distracting even Braxton makes fun of it, making it hard if he’s just as confused as the rest of us on his brother’s newfound way of speaking.

There’s a desire to make Justine a more central figure, and Harbor Neuroscience a prominent location. Once there it’s revealed that Justine has recruited all the children to act as hackers and coders, making Harbor Neuroscience look like a cross between Facebook and the Academy out of X-Men. The emphasis is clearly on that these children aren’t just neurodivergent, but geniuses, flying in the face of the first film where it was a school for autism (I don’t recall any emphasis on these kids being military-grade smart).

Then again, the movie employs the phrase “Acquired Savant Syndrome” a lot, essentially saying that if someone hits their head hard enough they’ll also be a savant. It’s a highly odd way of trying to get around the criticisms from the autism community and while it doesn’t work, you gotta applaud the script for twisting itself into large knots to overcome it.

The Accountant 2 is another highly outlandish actioner but when it doesn’t take itself seriously it’s vastly entertaining. Affleck and Bernthal should continue to make movies together because their rapport is infectious and funny. The autism plotline still doesn’t work and the plot is far more nonsensical than the first go-round, but you’ll remember The Accountant 2 far more than the first.

Grade: C+

The Accountant 2 hits theaters April 25.

What did you think of the first Accountant? Leave it in the comments.