Don Reviews "The Accountant 2"

There is the well-known adage that states “you can pick your friends, but not your family”.  Whether it is sibling rivalries or estrangements from each other, family dynamics can be incredibly complicated.  However, in most cases if someone messes with your family member, watch out because you will have an army coming after you.  This dynamic is at the heart of The Accountant 2.

Gavin O’Connor returns to direct Ben Affleck, Jon Bernthal, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, J.K. Simmons, and Allison Robertson for this installment, where Director Ray King (Simmons) is assassinated. His protégé, Marybeth Medina (Addai-Robinson), tries to investigate the murder and realizes she needs help.  She ends up calling in “The Accountant,” Christian Wolff (Affleck), to help due since she realizes the corruption around her.  As the investigation gets deeper, Wolff realizes that he may be in over his head, so he calls in his estranged brother Braxton (Bernthal), which both strengthens the mission and complicates things for everyone involved.

The cinematography level surprised me here, with multiple locations bind used to give it different types of looks depending on the location and place in the story’s timeline.  When it comes to the plot, The Accountant 2 runs just over two hours and does not seem long, even though a few scenes could have been cut.  What I found interesting here is unlike a lot of sequels, this one goes in a totally different direction from the original.  Instead of dealing with The Accountant looking into activity of a major company, this one is more like an international “whodunit” or spy film.  If there was a different cast of characters and change the title and a few twists, you might not know it’s a sequel.

My favorite part of this film is the acting itself, with a supporting cast like Simmons and Robertson are fine, but the big thing are the performances of Affleck and Bernthal.  As brothers who have opposite personalities who get along the way they do was incredible.  They are like the yin to each other’s yang and when together, their chemistry is incredible to the point where Bernthal’s presence (which even supplies comedic moments here and there) actually evolves Affleck’s character, which was pretty great in itself: n the previous film, Affleck’s character was like a human computer with no emotion, but he starts to turn more human when he is with his brother.  

So many times I have been disappointed by sequels because they tend to be rushed, but I was actually surprised on how much I liked this film, even though there are a few minor faults.  With all of that, I do recommend seeing The Accountant 2 as a twilight showing in the theaters.