The Accountant - Potential franchise

Image courtesy of www.rottentomatoes.com

Hello you! The name is Luca, but you can call me Luca and welcome back to my blog, Red's One-Shot. So when I started this blog, my aim was to review movies and I did try at first but never got to a level that I was happy with, so I've never really reviewed a film on here.

 

I have a list of movies that I have seen this year, so far with 27 films and only one that I didn't like (I won't get into what it was just yet, because then people will think I am a hater of said property), but I've liked certain movies more than others and overall, three movies have stood out as my main favourites. One of them is The Accountant.

 

In this film - which is in theatres right now - we have Ben Affleck as Christian Wolff who is a highly-functioning autistic, small town certified accountant who makes his living uncooking the books of dangerous criminal organisations that are experiencing internal embesselment. That's what Wikipedia tells you, but what it doesn't immediately say is that he's also a badass who knows his way around guns and heavy combat.

 

So immediately, the fact that Affleck's character is on the autism spectrum immediately had me intrigued because if you were not already aware, I am also autistic. This however was not something that made me completely bias towards this movie, so if you want to take my opinion with a pinch of salt then feel free. I do have some personal favourite stories about autism, like X+Y and Curious Incident.

 

What sets The Accountant apart is the story as it is one that would be a very typical popcorn blockbuster, but it's a lot more intelligent than that as it does focus a lot on Wolff as a character, not just because he has autism but a biproduct of his autistic traits leading to him being such a reserved and different character when interacting with others, but also just seeing him work with numbers so easily just leaves you in such utter admiration of Wolff. That making him a character that you do gravitate towards, despite the fact he is so softly spoken and has such few words to say.

 

Just for the sake of this, I am going to talk about two Matt Damon characters since both Damon and Affleck have been associated with each other since near the start of their careers. We have seen many Will Hunting characters on screen, those who are very great with numbers and they earn your respect from their intellect, and then we see many Jason Bourne characters who are a lot more physical and in that sense, you are in awe of their ability to fight. Christian Wolff is a rare combination of both, I don't think I have seen a character who combines both of these.

 

As for the film itself, there is something about The Accountant and another amazing film I love, Hanna - directed by Joe Wright and starring Saoirse Ronan as the titular character - is that it elicits some kind of feel to it that it was adapted from a novel. I appreciate the very low key and in the pocket, personal type of stories with lower stakes and very intricate telling of the plot, lore and characters, that's why I loved The Martian so much. This film does scream something like Lee Child's Jack Reacher novels but like Hanna amazingly, it's an original script. I would not be surprised at all if The Accountant was nominated for best original screenplay.

 

I am not going into the details of the plot because I think all of you should go see the film and I don't want to spoil it. There are a few little references that I want to talk about, because there are more than a few links to Batman and I'll just mention them now because I think they're all really cool pieces of trivia. Of course we know that Ben Affleck portrays Batman, being the current caped crusader in the DC movie universe alongside Superman and Wonder Woman.

 

Other interesting links though, we have J.K. Simmons as a treasury agent in The Accountant, and it was confirmed earlier this year that Simmons would hop back on the superhero movie train by portraying Commissioner James Gordon alongside Ben Affleck's Batman. There's also the nursery rhyme Solomon Grundy that Wolff sings to himself quite frequently in this movie, and if you're a very big fan of Batman and the lore surrounding it, you'll know that there is a villain character called Solomon Grundy.

 

There's even a shot in this film where Anna Kendrick's character is looking through a chest of drawers and finds some old school Action Comics books, which is what DC Comics used to be named back in the day. Oh and whilst not actual fact, a lot of people want to see Anna Kendrick be cast as Barbara Gordon, the daughter of Jim Gordon and also Batgirl. I personally do love Anna Kendrick but I've always wanted Molly C. Quinn to be cast as Barbara Gordon, though I would not complain one bit if Anna Kendrick was indeed cast.

 

Putting aside all the probably unintentional Batman links, The Accountant thrives as a movie on its own but I want to see more. This film has been compared to the likes of John Wick in terms of action, whilst I haven't seen John Wick (I know I should), I believe I am right in saying that it is very action heavy and has a simple plot, which by the way isn't a criticism.

 

The Accountant does end with a possibility for a sequel, and the director Gavin O'Connor (Who also directed the incredible Warrior with Tom Hardy, Joel Edgerton and Nick Nolte) has said that his plans for a sequel will involve Wolff helping out some children who are involved in child slavery, or something along those lines. I say this needs to happen.

 

Of course again, I have bias but we see so many films based around an autistic character or a genius with any kind of something that holds them back socially. We see them develop through the story and we are fascinated by them, but most of these stories are just standalone stories, but The Accountant has so much interesting lore surrounding it that we need to see more of it.

 

That being said, if this does become a franchise then there will be a lot of duties for Ben Affleck, who is also handling the standalone Batman films as a writer and director as well as obviously starring as the character. He'll also have the occasional movie he will want to do as well, he will be certainly busy if he continues as Bruce Wayne and Christian Wolff.

 

Actually can we just take a moment to talk about Ben Affleck? He was a joke in Hollywood for so long; J.Lo's boyfriend and paparazzi frequent, with Razzie awards for piles of shit like Gigli to now being acclaimed as one of the best directors working today, with an Academy Award to his name for Argo as a director, and proving people wrong when he was cast as Batman by completely owning the role and has set himself up for further greatness. Whilst it isn't such a rise from a fall like what Robert Downey, Jr. experienced, it is great to see Affleck honestly solidify himself as a great from what he used to be seen as by everyone.

 

As someone who is a film fan, this was an incredible movie that I plan on watching many more times. Also, as someone with autism, I don't think I'd plan on writing off to Marvel and have them create an autistic superhero (As cool that would be), but having an assassin and mathematician in a grounded and real world that you can believe, The Accountant is - and forgive me for the Batman quote - the hero autistic people need, and deserves. You know normally, when I am talking to my friends online I sometimes take the piss out of that quote and I'm like, "I am the hero this city... has".

 

So this is my rather deluded plea to Gavin O'Connor, please make a sequel. I know Warner Bros will be happy to see that already this movie has reportedly already made $130 million already worldwide on a budget of $44 million even with its R-Rating, having made 60% of its Box Office in the US, so that would be incentive enough for a sequel to be green lit.

 

Because in this world where the Jack Reacher films are a bit naff, John Wick is amazing with its hard hitting action heavy ways among an array of others, having a franchise with such rich possibilities could lead to some incredible films. Talking earlier about how it felt like it was an adaptation from a novel, I would buy a novelisation of this in a heartbeat despite the fact I know the story. It lends itself so well to a novel, I'd love to see novels of this character either the same as the movie just before the movie version is released or maybe even break off into standalone stories that the films could cherry pick from in the future.

 

I know I've spoken a bit about my intentions to write novels, I could not trust myself with something like this without worrying too much that it wouldn't be any good. I'd trust a much more celebrated and even acknowledged author to write The Accountant novels.

 

In conclusion, I cannot sing enough high praise about The Accountant. I hope you do consider seeing it, and just to put into perspective about how great I consider this film, the only other two favourite films of mine this year (As far as 2016 releases go), Eddie The Eagle and Captain America: Civil War.

 

Alright! That will be it from me today. If you're an avid viewer (First off, why? I'm shit), you'll know what is coming up next, me shamelessly plugging my Twitter or giving you a method to continue tracking my blog. I should copy and paste the last parts of my posts since they're always the same. So my Twitter is @TheLucaFormat, follow me if you think seeing links to my Instagram is worthy of a place on your feed, and if you're on desktop then type in your email into 'Follow By Email'. Or, be a slimy bastard and type in someone's email and they'll start to get my posts randomly.

 

Don't actually do that last part please, I couldn't live with myself! I don't even know if that shit is possible.

 

So with all that being said, thank you so much for reading I truly appreciate it. Hope to see you back here soon, so until we meet again.

 

Luca.