The core of what works about “The Accountant 2” recalls buddy action movies from the ‘80s, flicks that put together two likable stars in polar opposite character types and then just let the sparks fly. In this case, Ben Affleck almost literally plays the brain to Jon Bernthal’s brawn, and the pair of likable performers have fantastic chemistry, conveying that love-hate thing that is exclusively a sibling dynamic. When they are allowed to riff off each other, such as in an excellent scene on the roof of Affleck’s Sunstream, the movie hums off their energy. The problem is everything else.
“The Accountant 2” does set an interesting table. Years after the action of the first film (it’s almost impossible to believe it’s been almost a decade between films), Raymond King (J.K. Simmons) left FinCEN for P.I. work and has followed the clues around the disappearance of a family of three to some very dark and dangerous places. He’s meeting with a mysterious woman named Anaïs (Daniella Pineda), but she’s not the issue: that’s the armed men in the building and outside it. Are they there for King? Anaïs? Both? After a well-staged bathroom fight, King ends up the victim of a sniper shot in the street, but not before he has time to scrawl something on his arm: “Find the accountant.”
The message meets its intended target at the morgue: Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson), a Treasury agent who works to hunt down Christian Wolff aka The Accountant (Affleck). Wolff looks at King’s wall of evidence and starts to connect dots that no one else can see, and here’s where Bill Dubuque’s script starts to collapse in on itself. The mystery at the core of “The Accountant 2” is impossible to care about because the film never really defines its characters or stakes, using human trafficking and immigration problems in an exploitative way instead of presenting viewers with a real villain or mystery to solve. Maybe Christian’s hitman brother Braxton (Bernthal) can help?
Once they’re united, Christian, Braxton, and Medina barrel their way through the plot in a manner that produces too few surprises, twists, or sense of mystery. That’s fine for some action films, but director Gavin O’Connor doesn’t supplement the lack of interesting plotting with bang-bang action. There are a few well-structured scenes here but nothing memorable on an action level, and the final shoot-out is particularly poorly choreographed. Dubuque and O’Connor spend a ludicrous amount of time at Harbor Neuroscience, where Christian has developed a team of young people like him who can hack into any phone and even alter the traffic lights so they can get the job done. It’s almost funny to think about the amount of off-the-books murder to which these special kids have been an accomplice.
Here’s where fans of these films will argue that this critic is taking the film too seriously, and I did question why I give admittedly silly films like the “Den of Thieves” flicks a pass but couldn’t stop yawning during this one. Suspension of disbelief is a funny thing that way. If we’re overwhelmed by action or even just in love with character and sometimes even setting, we can put aside things like a complete lack of an engaging villain or neurodivergent child murderers. Sometimes just an abundance of personality or style can push aside the nagging questions that drag a film like this one down.
The truth is that pacing often trumps realism, and “The Accountant 2” just doesn’t build enough momentum. I think one of the reasons for that is that O’Connor is far more interested in the brother buddy comedy than the human trafficking action film, and never quite figures out how to blend the two. The film about two very different brothers who try to bridge the chasm of personality between them? Almost completely works. Everything else? Total hokum. Merging the two becomes an assignment too difficult for even The Accountant to decipher.
This review was filed from the world premiere at the SXSW Film Festival. It opens on April 25th.
