What It’s About: “The Accountant” is a twisty-turny Rubik’s Cube of a movie. This is smart. Director Gavin O’Connor (Warrior) and screenwriter Bill Dubuque (The Judge) know Wolff is unique, and seek to explore him in as many ways as possible, which includes flashbacks to Wolff’s hard upbringing.
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Which brings us to “The Accountant”, opening Friday.
Ben Affleck channelled his role as Batman to prepare him for his role as the accountant Chirstian Wolff in the new movie “The Accountant”. But if you’re a drug cartel or a Mafia kingpin, you can’t do that. Cooking the books for criminals. J.K. Simmons and Cynthia Addai-Robinson star as a couple agents tracking Wolff down.
With director Gavin O’Connor’s The Accountant opening this weekend in theaters everywhere, last week I sat down with Ben Affleck and O’Connor for an exclusive video interview. “I’m going to go as Dad”, he said. I know that less is more for some, but I’m a child of excess.
“Even though Chris is on the (autism) spectrum and Dana is not, she’s not batting a thousand on pleasant conversation either”. The director yearned to tell a personal and emotional story without preconceived notions. I wanted this to be fun. The journey began with O’Connor and Affleck visiting the Exceptional Minds School in Los Angeles, where they spent time talking to and getting to know several men with autism.
“It was a lot of preparation and a lot of research because you have to research what the reality is”, Affleck asserted. I hope it comes across that he really loved his son. “That’s what I anchored my performance in”.
Another scene written by a different child involves the “accountant’s oath”: accountants promise never to fight other accountants. The only thing one can be sure at the moment in the end, that’s why Ben Affleck has chosen to make the villain Deathstroke Batman!
John Lithgow, who plays a robotics company exec, said, “This is my kind of smart movie with a great ensemble cast, the kind they don’t do much anymore”.
Silat is an indigenous martial arts originated and widely practised in Southeast Asia, especially in Malaysia and Indonesia. It’s has the DNA of the Bourne movies, Good Will Hunting, and oddly Batman (without the cape and cowl). He said, “I’d be watching the game if I didn’t have this here to do”.
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For an actor who was once as reviled as he was during his Daredevil/Gigli period, Affleck now seems to know exactly how to get to the center of a character.
