It’s been nearly ten years since director Gavin O’Connor (Warrior, Pride & Glory) and screenwriter Bill Dubuque brought us The Accountant, the curious story of Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck), who has a talent for solving complex problems and often uses his skills as a math savant. In the first film, he earned his living sanitizing fraudulent financial records of criminal—and even terrorist—organizations around the world, often weeding out those in the groups who were embezzling. When necessary, he’s also quite proficient and economical when it comes to killing, but in The Accountant 2, these are all skills he’s seemingly left behind for life in a trailer home.
Also in the first film, we met the likes of Raymond King (J.K. Simmons), who was Christian’s handler at the Treasury Department, to whom Christian fed information from time to time; young treasury agent Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson); and of course, Christian’s brother, Braxton (Jon Bernthal), who, under the guise of operating a security company for high-profile clients, is really he’s a paid assassin. All of these folks return in various capacities in The Accountant 2. When someone close to the group is killed by unknown assassins, Agent Medina is forced to contact Christian to help solve the murder under her supervision. But when he calls in Braxton to help, the body count starts to pile up.
The plot might be almost too complicated to figure out, let alone explain, but it involves a vicious female killer (Daniella Pineda), human trafficking, missing children—all of which slowly come together as Christian applies his brilliant mind to piecing together this labyrinthian puzzle. And if you get lost, don’t worry, because the best parts of The Accountant 2 involve the relationships, not the story. The scenes with Affleck and Bernthal are both plentiful and quite funny, but there are a couple moments in which Brax wonders why they haven’t really kept in touch since the events of the first film. Since Christian is neurodivergent, he has a tough time holding onto relationships or expressing himself when it comes to those he cares about or the emotional support he may need. But the brothers’ bond is so genuine, it’s difficult not to get caught up in whatever they get up to, whether it’s a night out at a country-western bar or a killing spree through a field of bad guys.
I also really enjoying watching the Medina character get some expanded play this time around, although once the brothers take over the case, she unfortunately gets sidelined. Additionally, I liked the team of hackers—most of whom look too young to vote—who Christian employs to feed him information during his investigations. They give the film an intermittent youthful energy, and their interactions with Christian are often quite amusing.
The film’s big reveal about the identity of the female killer isn’t that hard to figure out and doesn’t have quite the punch the filmmakers clearly thought it would. And the rest of the villains in The Accountant 2 are fairly interchangeable, stereotypical, and forgettable, though not enough to ruin the parts of the movie that legitimately work. Admittedly, I miss the vibe that Anna Kendrick brought to the first film (not to mention the characters played by John Lithgow and Jean Smart), but this is still a worthy, brutal, and quite funny sequel.
The film is now playing in theaters.
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