He's Not THe Hero We Deserve - He's The Hero We Need 

I have been known to be hard on Ben Affleck. I much prefer him as a director. In fact, in my review of Argo I believe I said Affleck's worst directorial decision was casting himself as the lead. But I liked Ben Affleck in The Accountant. Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck) is a numbers savant and a high-functioning autistic. When he's not doing the taxes for Jonathan and Martha Kent, he's uncooking the books for drug lords and arms dealers. Why would a pencil pusher take on such dangerous work? First, he likes the challenge and second, he is a total badass.

I’m not sure how to write this properly, or what it says about Ben Affleck, but Affleck plays an autistic person really well. About midway through the movie Wolff tells fellow accountant Danna Cummings (Anna Kendrick) that he wishes he was better at social interaction (don’t we all). But like Batman, which, coincidentally, was Affleck’s most recent role preceding, Christian Wolff was able to take his fear and struggle and turn it into a strength to help others based around his moral code.

The Accountant is packed with a tremendous supporting cast. I already mentioned Anna Kendrick, who is adorable as always, but there is also Jeffrey Tambor as Wolff’s jailhouse companion, John Lithgow as the owner of a robotics company who hires Wolff to find the man embezzling his company’s money, J.K. Simmons as the agent hunting him down for killing people, and Jon Bernthal as a rival assassin. All of these actors help light up the screen and add to the pleasure of watching the story unfold.

​It’s also surprisingly funny, and not in a—“Oh my God this is so ridiculous” kind of way. The story had some good jokes capitalizing on awkward moments between characters. This added a strong human element to the movie especially as the story built towards a climactic moment that falls flat.

Finally Affleck gets to play someone who is wicked smaht

Toward the end of the movie there is a big shootout between Affleck and the bad guys, because that's how the movie has been advertised. However, the ending was the least interesting part of the story; it felt like something we've seen before. Nor was I interested in J.K. Simmons subplots about catching this guy. Simmons’ character was a mixture of funny and brooding as only J.K. Simmons can play, but the best part of the movie is Ben Affleck and how he handles the world around him. And anything that pulls that focus does the movie a disservice.

The Accountant was directed by Gavin O'Connor, the same guy who did Miracle and Warrior, two movies I really liked. They are also two movies that know exactly what they are—stories that you can numbly enjoy watching. The Accountant isn't a movie meant to be taken seriously. The idea of Ben Affleck playing an accountant and also somehow a spy is absolutely ridiculous. But the ridiculous and the silly aspects of this movie let it be something better. I am tired of seeing movies with guys who are good at everything do well. I want to see a guy who can kicks ass and doesn’t know how to answer a rhetorical question or when how to properly talk to a woman. That is the hero we deserve. B