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Accountant, The

5/10

Stars: Ben Affleck, Anna Kendrick, J.K. Simmons, Jon Bernthal, Jeffrey Tambor, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, John Lithgow, Jean Smart

Director: Gavin O'Connor

Affleck (cinema’s least exciting Caped Crusader?) turns lawless to play a mathematics savant-turned-crooked freelance accountant (“I have a highly functioning form of autism”) in a less-than-convincingly scripted (Bill Dubuque takes credit) thriller which delivers enough assorted gunplay, slugfests, sizzling car chases and bloodletting mayhem to satisfy action addicts who (rightly for much of the running time) may lose interest in a storyline whose far too frequent flashbacks finally engenders as much irritation over exactly what is happening as holding excitement.

Kendrick, Lithgow and, especially, Simmons steal the acting laurels, leaving director O’Connor valiantly concentrating on vividly staged action (almost 50 people are credited under the heading “Stunts”) and bloody bedlam to keep you watching.

There's even a tad of (deliberate) humour – Affleck, among other methods, launders crooked cash via a mall Laundromat.

And, as always, you learn something new at the movies, here when Affleck explains to Kendrick why they’re in an expensive hotel - because, he says “Cheaper hotels have scratchy towels”.



Alan Frank

USA 2016. UK Distributor: Warner Brothers. Colour.
122 minutes. Widescreen. UK certificate: 15.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 1, Violence/Horror 2, Drugs 0, Swearing 2.

Review date: 20 Mar 2017

DVD review