How many films depict a person on the Autism spectrum as an assassin? I don’t have the answer to that, but with The Accountant, I can say there’s one such story out there. Starring Ben Affleck, Jon Bernthal, Anna Kendrick, J.K. Simmons, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, and John Lithgow, this film was pleasantly anticipated in the autumn of 2016.
The Accountant primarily follows Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck) as he steps out of his usual routine of handling the affairs of drug kingpins, mafioso bosses, and other disreputable figures in the criminal underground to handle a standard, run-of-the-mill audit for a major corporation that deals in state-of-the-art robotics and prostheses. CEO Lamar Blackburn and his sister Rita Blackburn (John Lithgow and Jean Smart) have hired Wolff’s small accounting firm after one of their accountants noticed an irregularity in their accounting books. Dana Cummings (Anna Kendrick) noticed one small mistake, which spiraled into a massive conspiracy that would end up with the murders of multiple people.
On the other hand, we have the Director of the Treasury Department’s FinCEN (Financial Crimes Enforcement Network), Ray King (J.K. Simmons), who has been trying to unearth the existence of a mysterious accountant for years. He ropes in a young treasury agent, Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson), whom he manipulates after discovering she lied on her application when she left out an arrest on her record that was sealed before she turned eighteen. Director King has tasked Medina with finding Christian Wolff’s true identity, bringing a decades-long game of cat and mouse to a close before his anticipated retirement. But there’s more than meets the eye.
As Medina and King delve deeper into who Christian Wolff is, they directly confirm what Christian stated when investigating the case for Living Robotics. Everybody has a pattern and a tell that they fall back on. For Christian, it’s mathematicians who had, or were suspected to have, autism. They are the people from whom he chooses his names. If his current setup is typical, he also purchases strip malls featuring all-cash businesses, allowing him to effortlessly launder his money. When they find his house and King shares the true meaning behind his investigation with Medina, her worldview starts to crumble and shift into something new.
Also at Living Robotics, the company overseen by the Blackburns’, is Ed Chilton (Andy Umberger), the CFO, who is outright critical of Wolff and Cummings for daring to question his work, competency, and loyalty. The discovery that over $61 million has been embezzled from the company complicates matters for everybody involved. The other three central characters in the film are Francis Silberberg (Jeffrey Tambor), Justine (Alison Wright), and Braxton “Brax” (Jon Bernthal). Together, they circle Christian’s world.
Lamar Blackburn presents himself as a kind, charitable, and generous man who cares about helping veterans and others who have lost limbs regain control in their lives. His façade is so thorough that his best friend and sister are more outwardly ambitious or obstructive, despite Rita going out of her way to ensure that the investigation goes forward.
When it comes down to it, though, she is the one who ultimately shuts it down when it comes to its conclusion. However, if you’ve seen Dexter, you know how good John Lithgow is at portraying two sides of the same coin.
Francis Silverberg was a bookkeeper for the Mafia who went to prison because he sold them out to get protection from the FBI. However, what he instead received was a veritable death sentence. During his time in prison, he and Christian became friends. Silverberg ended up teaching Christian all of his tricks of the trade, including the varying people he would need to meet to succeed Silverberg as a criminal accountant. Silverberg’s death was never supposed to happen, though, as it was clear that the FBI was supposed to protect him.
But when he was released, nobody was there to meet him – as they had all but abandoned him – which, predictably, led to his death. What nobody could have seen coming was when Christian learned of Silverberg’s death, immediately escaped from prison, and hunted down the mafia members responsible for Silverberg’s death.
Justine is initially introduced as a child at a facility run by her father (played by Jason Davis) when Christian’s parents (Rob Treveiler and Mary Kraft) come to discuss their son. Credited as ‘neurologist,’ he attempts to help Christian’s parents come to terms with their son’s diagnosis, and both are resistant in their own way. Justine, who has nonverbal autism, comes out of her shell long enough to provide the missing piece to a puzzle that Christian was putting together – calming him in the process. It isn’t until the film’s end that Justine’s identity as his partner is revealed. Still, her voice over the phone plays a huge role in providing Christian with necessary and relevant information. She is among the few people he trusts, even if he doesn’t always listen to her advice (heavy sigh).
Lastly, we have Brax, a hitman, dispatched to eliminate those who have discovered the truth regarding Living Robotics. He runs his own organization, sending out his minions to hunt down Christian and Dana when it becomes clear that they are a threat to the real villain. The truth of his place in this story is evident to anybody paying attention: they are one another’s brothers. He is a fearsome force who seems unstoppable. When Christian and Braxton cross paths midway through the film after the successful execution of his latest target, we are given a glimpse into just how effective Christian is as a combatant.
Dana plays an essential role as a person who tries to reach out to Christian and form a connection with him. Her keen eye and kind heart draw Christian’s attention, even as he attempts to maintain his distance. Autism is referred to as a spectrum because it is as wide as it is varied. While very few characters in The Accountant formed any relationship with Christian, Dana managed to. Her kind persistence and interest in numbers, not to mention her commonalities, broke through Christian’s barriers in a way that only a few other people could. It was why, when it came down to the wire, Christian had to choose between the safe and reliable path laid out for him or involve himself further and risk his life and his operation, even though he seemed surprised by his decision.
Whether or not it could be called love, or if Dana merely confounded him, is up for debate. He gave Dana everything she asked for even though she had never attempted to ask for it.
Part of the story is told through flashbacks as Christian and Braxton grow up under their father’s careful, unyielding hand, a U.S. Army PSYOP officer. He trains his sons in combat from a young age, personally or through others. He manipulates their emotions to get them to do things his way, whether continuing training well past what their trainer believes is healthy or beating up those who dare to slight them, teaching them to never do it again. Their father is doing almost all of this to prepare Christian for a world that will not go easy on him so that he can punch back and live in a world that will not compromise itself for him. Braxton was simply a casualty of this, but it’s clear from how their father acts that he was never cut out to be a traditional father. His death is one of the two times that Christian ever loses control of himself after his training is complete.
The Accountant is an intense story about relationships and connections and how they interplay with one another over time. On one hand, we have the Blackburns’ – with one ordering the murder of the other. On the other hand, we have Braxton and Christian. The moment they genuinely realize who the other is, they stop fighting. Although Braxton’s job was to protect his client, Christian was there to kill him. Perhaps that was why Lamar was so confused about what was happening. We also have transitory relationships, such as the farming couple who come to Christian to help them with their taxes. He showed them kindness (though it was because of how his mind worked regarding tax law), and they returned the favor. When they were threatened and held hostage to try and get at Christian, they took a beating before even thinking about giving him up – and he paid them back tenfold.
With the confirmation of the sequel here, I cannot wait to see how the world of The Accountant evolves.
Lloydd Marshall Books 