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Created Oct 29, 2016 12:43PM PST • Edited Oct 30, 2016 08:06PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   Great 4.0

   The Accountant provides a fresh and topical spin on familiar action movie tropes by making its hero an autistic. Ben Affleck stiffly and therefore ably plays the congenitally maladjusted number-cruncher / assassin of the title. Backed up by a strong supporting cast – Jon Bernthal is a particular highlight – Big Ben’s got himself a well deserved hit and the basis of a new series. Let’s hear it for the badass autistic hero!

4. Acting

   Great 4.0

   Ben Affleck is more credible as an assassin than he is as an autistic, though he is reasonably convincing as the latter. That said, no one will mistake his performance for Dustin Hoffman’s in Rain Man.

   • Anna Kendrick brings her trademark quirky-perkiness as a fellow accountant / love interest. She and Affleck have a clear if oddball chemistry together.
   • J. K. Simmons is typically terrific as a senior Treasury Department agent. Simmons is always worth watching, even in Farmer’s Insurance commercials, let alone in a great thriller.
   • Jon Bernthal jumps offscreen as a mysterious hitman. Thankfully his career is in overdrive now, as he previously jumped offscreen in The Wolf of Wall Street, Sicario and Fury.
   • Jeffrey Tambor masterfully plays an almost elderly accountant for the mob.
   • John Lithgow smartly plays a self-absorbed tech tycoon.
   • Jean Smart brings an intelligent hauteur as Lithgow’s sister.
   • Robert C. Treveiler is quietly powerful as the autistic boy’s authoritarian father.

5. Male Stars Great 4.0

6. Female Stars Great 4.0

7. Female Costars Great 4.0

8. Male Costars Great 4.0

10. Film

    Very Good 3.5

    The typically ridiculous premise of an action flick gains emotional heft by exploring the backstory of an autistic boy who grows up to be an oddball master of the universe. Relationship issues, brotherhood issues and emotional issues all come to the fore, giving The Accountant a pleasing and intriguing complexity.

    Better yet, Gavin O’Connor’s film from Bill Dubuque’s screenplay saves a powerful twist for the final reel. That bonus makes it a great film.

    Interesting Credits

    • 3 dozen stuntmen: yep, lots of big action scenes
    • 4 autism consultants: reflecting one part of the accountant’s persona
    • 1 math consultant: reflecting another part of his persona

11. Direction Very Good 3.5

    Gavin O’Connor has become a reliably strong director of action movies that have brother-to-brother and father-to-son relationships at their core, with The Accountant following 2011’s Warrior.

12. Play Great 4.0

    Bill Dubuque’s fledgling career is gaining steam. He wrote The Accountant alone, after being one of four writers on the 2014 Robert Downy, Jr. / Robert Duvall vehicle The Judge.

13. Music Very Good 3.5

14. Visuals Great 4.0
15. Content

16. Edge

    Sordid 2.9

17. Sex Titillating 1.6

18. Violence Brutal 3.4

19. Rudeness Nasty 3.7

21. Reality

    Surreal 2.5

    Autism has finally come to the fore of societal consciousness, albeit the complexity of the condition and spectrum of its effects make it hard to pigeonhole. Now The Accountant gives autistics and their families a pop-cultural touchstone to help drive understanding. Those of us in that cohort owe it a debt of gratitude.

    That said, the movie itself is ridiculously surreal, as big budget action movies tend to be.

22. Circumstantial Surreal 3.0

23. Biological Surreal 2.5

24. Physical Surreal 2.1