{"id":6093,"date":"2017-01-03T18:00:41","date_gmt":"2017-01-03T18:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crimeculture.com\/?page_id=6093"},"modified":"2017-01-24T14:46:07","modified_gmt":"2017-01-24T14:46:07","slug":"the-accountant","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.crimeculture.com\/?page_id=6093","title":{"rendered":"The Accountant"},"content":{"rendered":"

Review by\u00a0Allan L. Branson<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"accountant\"<\/a>What has\u00a0Ben Affleck been eating? Since his anti-hero opus, The Town,<\/em> he has grown in muscle mass and auteurial skills. That true crime drama was followed up with a historic political thriller Argo,<\/em> then a buff uncompromising Batman, as the character was meant to be portrayed in that franchise – brutal\u2026a little bad and a little good – someone to be feared! If fear of the anti-hero is what you are looking for, Affleck\u2019s recent offering is exactly what you get. In this fictional crime drama, his character Christian Wolff (an appropriate surname) is a high functioning autistic accountant, whose military father intuits that his sons, especially Christian need to adapt to a cruel world not the other way around. The second son, in adulthood is played by Jon Bernthal who for a short time played the devious deputy, Shane on the television series, The Walking Dead<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Once you see the physicality required for this film Bernthal was an excellent choice as a co-star. Both he and Affleck train hard in real life. Flashback scenes play a major role in this taut drama but not in a Tarantino way (a\u2019 la Pulp Fiction<\/em>) but as a necessary vehicle towards character development. The real world martial arts training, for Affleck is apparent and for the audience rendered in boyhood flashbacks. Affleck dispatches foes with a brutal emotionless vengeance not seen since Steven Segal\u2019s first movie. Before Take Sensei, Segal became heavier and more notably right wing, he quipped in his premiere classic Above the Law<\/em>, \u201c\u2026you guys think you are above the law, well you ain\u2019t above mine.\u201d Christian Wolff too has a moral center gleaned from his father, and prison mentor (played by Jeffrey Tambor aka Francis Silverberg) it is his Kantian \u201ccategorical imperative.\u201d What has begun must be finished, note the Muhammad Ali jigsaw puzzle symbolically shown in the beginning of the movie and is an ever-present thematic underpinning.<\/p>\n

With the ability to discern mathematical configurations of a savant, Mr. Wolff, whose skillful reputation precedes him, has been utilized by cartels, the mafia and corporations for many reasons. Payments apparently are rendered to him in cash and original works of art. This fact was noted by Anna Kendrick as Dana Cummings a second-generation nerdy accountant who is dwarfed only by Mr. Affleck\u2019s physical presence, not his acting chops. Her fresh innocence and wonderment remain (see End of Watch<\/em>). What it takes her a sleepless week to uncover as Living Robotics in-house accountant, Affleck\u2019s character does overnight.<\/p>\n

The cast is star studded, newcomer Cynthia Addai-Robinson whose checkered past needs to be hidden is fodder for blackmail by her boss, J.K. Simmons as the soon to be retired Treasury agent, Ray King. Ever since Ray\u2019s life was spared he needs to know who and what type of person the accountant really is. John Lithgow is Living Robotics corporate CEO, Lamar Black. While the ending of the film wanes a bit as Christian reunites with his brother in an oh so strange way, you must be patient. Like getting your taxes done, its seems slow, then it gets scary but overall in the end, the refund you weren\u2019t anticipating from this action drama is BIG!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Review by\u00a0Allan L. Branson What has\u00a0Ben Affleck been eating? Since his anti-hero opus, The Town, he has grown in muscle<\/p>\n

Continue readingThe Accountant<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":779,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeculture.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6093"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeculture.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeculture.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeculture.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/779"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeculture.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6093"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeculture.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6093\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6185,"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeculture.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/6093\/revisions\/6185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crimeculture.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}