A Calculation of Crime and Intrigue: The Accountant
The Accountant is the story of Christian Wolff, a man suffering from Asperger’sана autistic spectrum disorder, who becomes a forensic accountant for several dangerous criminals. When he gets engaged on a legitimate assignment for a robotics company owned by Lamar Blackburn, he discovers that it’s a fraud related to fraudulent money-making scam and turns into death match. It is evident towards the climax of the film when Christian is forced to fight the Treasury Department in the attempt of unmasking his real identity; this results in a number of thrilling action sequences. Combining the genres of thriller and drama, The Accountant follows the story of a man with Aspergers’ syndrome, family relations and the shades of evil in the sphere of business. It focuses on the story of being different but talented, and how the society refuses to accept such a person but, at the same time tries to embrace him. He was exceptional in that his portrayal of an autistic character was credible and depicted both the strengths and the weaknesses within an autistic character. Candice Patton plays Dana Cummings with the cuteness and weakness that makes her character interesting opposite Wolff’s stern persona. The protagonist and co actor are J.K. Simmons and Jon Bernthal add oomph to their characters and their roles with excellent energy and intent into their performances.
The man behind the lens, Gavin O’Connor presents an Occam’s razor edged film with some well executed action and performance based scenes filled with a dose of warmth. He paints an artistic work that unveils itself to the human mind and heart. The option of facing adversity with resilience and accurate force is illustrated by the director in the most appealing way.
A score of Mark Isham does not overpower the film and adds to the film’s tempo using strings and percussion at the moments of suspense and lifting the spirits with melodic instruments in the moments, when the audience is free to think. The music complements the pace of the picture, is never dominating but adds the right amount of emotion and reason to the formula through the protagonist.
The visuals are strategic and interesting with the thrilling moments in the picture shot in a manner that is artistic. Lighting enhances the atmosphere with gloomy scenes to predominate, but with flashes of light in the midst of menacing situations in order to maintain meticulous setting.
Production design shows the spectrum of protagonist’s life from ordered life of numbers to his chaotic fights. Sets aim at taking the audience into these two completely different worlds, which complement the film’s story and its motifs.
The practical effects in The Accountant are even though not overpowering, used brilliantly; it gives a feel of reality to the actions. It weaves action in form of fight and shooting sequences with realism and style without involving dramatic extras that would overemphasize the action.
The transition is clean and well done, providing good blend between action and development of the story. Pacing is good because transitions are smooth which enables the story to follow a sequential flow and make the viewer anxious when this is necessary in the process of developing the plot. First introductions are made with care so as to give the audience a feel of Wolff’s character and once the movie starts rolling there isn’t much sluggishness in between.
Dialogue forms a good platform to carry out the story wholly and solely based on characters. The script is intelligent, which is spiced with dry humor or philosophical reflections at times; as a result, rifts in characters’ professional and private lives are presented in a rather complex manner. There is some pacing issues from time to time especially during moments when the movie switches from full-blown action to the protagonist’s introspection. Overall the movie can be said to be well acted and well directed thus it is a good movie to watch. It left me contemplating over one’s identity, perception to disability, and the relationship between the legally legal and ethically moral.
