“He’s capable of coming in cold, uncooking years of books and getting out alive. Imagine the secrets this guy has.”

I said earlier in the year when talking about Triple 9 (click here for my review) and I’ll say it again about this film – this is what happens when bad movies happen to good actors. Although the film has some an interesting concept – having a protagonist who uses the cover of a small-town CPA office to work as a freelance accountant for some of the world’s most dangerous criminal organization. The primary idea is that as a maths genius on the autistic spectrum he makes for the perfect assassin – this quickly becomes ridiculous and truly problematic. This aspect could have be explored with care and detail – instead is told with overblown incompetency.

What should be a corker of a thriller becomes a bad-tasting blend of b-movie exploitation and maverick-eccentric. Every cliche from the rulebook is thrown in, plotlines are built with varying degrees of  intricacy and detail only to be totally destroyed by guffaw-inducing ‘plot twists’ and reveals. Once upon a time this idea had the potential for greatness yet thanks to poor execution the result is rather dumb and painful to watch.

Dir:Gavin O’Connor

Country:  USA                         Year: 2016               Run time: 112 minutes

Cast: Ben Affleck, Anna Kendrick, J.K. Simmons, Jon Bernthal, Jeffrey Tambor, John Lithgow. 

The Accountant opens in UK cinemas on November 4th.