The plot is a mess, but Ben Affleck and Jon Bernthal’s on-screen chemistry is a priceless asset
By Dana Barbuto/Boston Movie News
Let’s not pretend we’re above it: “The Accountant 2” knows exactly what it’s doing with Jon Bernthal. He gets a killer entrance—sultry blues track, a swanky Berlin hotel, and a shiny new gun. Seconds later, he’s shirtless, pacing around in his underwear, nervously rehearsing lines for a future conversation about adopting a puppy. He tries out different voices—stern, soft, sincere—but, let’s be honest, nobody’s listening. The camera lingers shamelessly, and his boxer-clad bravado steals the entire scene. Bernthal’s only job in this movie is to bring cocksure swagger. Mission very much accomplished.
Nearly a decade after the first film, Ben Affleck returns as Christian Wolff, an autistic CPA who kills bad guys when he’s not crunching numbers. He’s brilliant—a “savant”—but socially adrift, living in a tightly controlled neurodivergent bubble with help from teenage hackers who operate out of a high-tech lair inside a picturesque neuroscience residence in New Hampshire. Chris calls them “my people.”
He’s pulled back into action when a former U.S. Treasury agent (J.K. Simmons) is murdered, leading him into a convoluted web involving cartel-backed human traffickers in L.A., a missing Salvadoran boy, and a vaguely amnesiac assassin played by Daniella Pineda. Cynthia Addai-Robinson’s federal agent Marybeth Medina returns, still skeptical but increasingly impressed with Chris’s ability to, well, do literally everything except hold a normal conversation.
What unfolds is preposterous. This is the kind of movie where an international trafficking ring is exposed in about 60 seconds flat by tallying up the cost of pizza boxes. The plot is bloated, overloaded with exposition dumps, and, by the third act, devolves into a dusty, shaky-cam shoot-em-up as the Wolff brothers head to Mexico to rescue kids from a prison camp. Given the real-world political climate around immigration, this storyline could have used a bit more grace. Instead, we get a handful of barely connected narrative strands yanked together at the last minute in a resolution that doesn’t make you feel too bad about the high body count.
And yet, somehow, it works. Mostly.
The dynamic between Affleck and Bernthal fuels the film. It’s essentially a buddy comedy wrapped in high-caliber gunfire and sarcasm. Director Gavin O’Connor and writer Bill Dubuque—both back from the original—lean hard into the sibling banter, and it pays off. Affleck delivers his signature deadpan precision, while Bernthal radiates raw, unpredictable energy—all bruised heart and lethal instinct. Affleck also gets one of the film’s best bits all to himself when Chris bombs a speed dating event after gaming the algorithm to favor himself. “I love love LOVE accountants,” says a hopeful date—and is met with his dead-eyed spreadsheet stare.
But it’s when the brothers are onscreen together that the movie really finds its rhythm. One minute, they’re at a country bar where Chris picks up line dancing (and a pretty girl); the next, Brax hurls bodies through a window. Later, they get into an as-heartfelt-as-guys-get debate over whether Brax is really a cat person. O’Connor and Dubuque smartly double down on this sibling rivalry and revelry. The math doesn’t add up in any traditional sense, but when the equation includes Affleck’s dry wit, Bernthal’s roguish charm, and an undeniably cute orange cat—who’s really counting?
‘The Accountant 2’
Rating: R for strong violence and language throughout.
Cast: Ben Affleck, Jon Bernthal, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Daniella Pineda, Allison Robertson, and J.K. Simmons
Director: Gavin O’Connor
Writer: Bill Dubuque
Running time: 125 minutes
Where to watch: In theaters on April 25
Grade: B
Boston Movie News 