Was he a good father? "The Accountant"
"The Accountant" (2017, USA, 131 minutes)
Director: Gavin O'Connor
Cast: Ben Affleck, Anna Kendrick, J.K. Simmons
Ben Affleck, who played a CIA operative struggling to rescue the American ambassador to Iran during the Iran hostage crisis (Argo, 2012).
J.K. Simmons, who played a demonic music conservatory professor who would stop at nothing to train a jazz drummer (Whiplash, 2014).
This film, featuring a luxurious co-starring performance by two Academy Award-regular actors, was quite worth watching.
Synopsis
Christian Wolff, a small-town accountant, has another face: he manages the secret ledgers of dangerous people around the world and is a sniper with 100% accuracy who earns a billion yen a year.
One day, Wolff receives a request for a financial audit from a large corporation. Wolff discovers major fraud, but for some reason, the request is unilaterally terminated, and from that day on, Wolff finds his life being targeted by someone.
Day Job and Night Job
The protagonist, Christian Wolff, makes a living by providing accounting consultations in a small town near Chicago during his normal hours.
On the surface, he is a manager of a small accounting firm, and since it is a small town, there are no major accounting cases.
His secret side is that of a highly skilled accountant who handles financial processing for key figures in the underworld, and a professional hitman who assassinates those involved one after another when his secret work is about to be discovered.
This unprecedented character setting emphasizes his uniqueness.
Furthermore, because he has had autism since childhood, he has difficulty communicating, but he also has traits of Savant Syndrome, where individuals with intellectual disabilities like autism have exceptional talents in specific areas such as piano or calculation. It was fresh and unprecedented that his current work is a result of these complex settings overlapping.
As I also have a day job as a company employee and a night job as a writer, I felt a sense of affinity here.
Well, I know the scale is completely different.
Ben Affleck and J.K. Simmons
The accountant Wolff, played by Ben Affleck, and Raymond King, the Director of the Treasury Department played by J.K. Simmons, communicate for many years through a female assistant.
In the scene of the incident that led to this, Wolff lets a young King go. The question Wolff asked at that time was,
"Was he a good father?"
It was a question he asked King, who was begging for his life, saying he had two children.
Wolff also experienced a tragic incident where his respected father was killed due to a mistake of his own, stemming from his autism-specific personality.
The two only share about ten minutes of screen time together.
However, that scene is extremely memorable, and in a flashback, King says that thanks to Wolff, he was able to rise to the position of Director, even though he was just a small-time accountant. It was a luxurious time where their brilliant acting conveyed that the world cannot always be dealt with in a clean and proper manner.
The true identity of the woman giving instructions to Wolff
This was also quite something.
If I write too much detail, it will be a spoiler, but she is a person who calls both Wolff and King, acting as a bridge between them and providing necessary information by utilizing hacking techniques.
In the movie, she only appears over the phone.
However, at the end of the movie, I couldn't hide my surprise, thinking, "Wait? It was that person?"
The true identity of the villain
Wolff is also a villain who helps with fraudulent accounting, but the true identity of the mafia who helps with the fraudulent accounting of the home appliance manufacturer that makes prosthetic legs and arms, which is the setting of the movie, was also, "Wait? It was this person?"
In the film, they show a ruthlessness that rivals Wolff's, such as making the accounting manager commit suicide by staging an insulin overdose accident, saying, "I don't want to do anything rough, so I want you to decide for yourself."
The two heroines
The heroines are Dana (Anna Kendrick), who works as an accountant at a home appliance manufacturer that became the stage for fraudulent accounting, and Marybeth (Cynthia Addai-Robinson), who is called in by Director King and forced to become his successor after her past criminal record is exposed while working at the Treasury Department.
Dana is impressed by Wolff's accounting skills and becomes a good friend who understands him.
Meanwhile, Marybeth, despite her criminal past, is highly capable and gradually closes in on Wolff by uncovering his true identity. King recognizes her talent and, in a semi-coercive manner, involves her and offers her the position of his successor, telling her to cooperate if she doesn't want her past exposed.
Light and Shadow: The Rules of Each Society
As various human dramas intersect, Wolff makes a living by helping important figures in the underworld with their accounting, while King has risen to the position of Director by turning in those who have acted dishonorably in the underworld to the Treasury Department, thereby exposing corruption.
During press conferences, King emphasized "team contribution" when exposing fraudulent accounting, and there is no doubt that this team included Wolff.
The sight of people who should never normally interact standing up against a common evil speaks to the complexity of the world.
However, the roots of this go back to when Wolff helped King.
The line about how there are rules in both the legitimate and underworld societies, and that as long as you follow them, you are safe, was very impressive.
Perhaps they have amazing abilities just because they cannot communicate
Recently, I have seen news that paintings by people with intellectual disabilities are attracting a lot of attention for their unique touch.
In this movie, there is a scene where the head of a facility for people with disabilities says, "Perhaps healthy people just don't know how to communicate with them."
The background of the top page of this note is also a photograph of a painting by artist Jimmy Onishi.
After all, discriminating against someone just because they have a disability is not only wrong from this perspective, but it might actually be a loss.
This movie conveys that point very well.
A final word
This is a movie I cannot talk too much about, as writing too much would make it feel like a spoiler.
Saying that might show the limitations of my movie reviews, but it has been a long time since I saw a movie I thought was "perfect!"