The Accountant 2 Review

The Accountant opens successful theaters connected Friday, April 25. This reappraisal is based connected a screening astatine the 2025 SXSW Film and TV Festival.

You tin archer from the mode the rubric is stylized connected surface – arsenic a mathematical exponent, similar Alien³ – that The Accountant 2 has removed the self-seriousness from its predecessor’s different delightful formula. Gavin O’Connor’s sequel is simply a blast, gathering connected the communicative and relationships of 2016’s The Accountant to uncover a touching, hilarious representation of fraught brotherhood wrong a charged and politically applicable plot. All the while, it leans full-tilt into a goofy setup that’s executed with utter confidence: Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck), a.k.a. The Accountant, is simply a savant number-cruncher for the mob and part-time vigilante gunman whose autism is mildly approached and realistically performed, but framed arsenic though it were a superpower.

There’s little legume counting successful The Accountant 2, but acold much humor and bullets, starting with an opening country successful which erstwhile Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (or FinCEN) manager Raymond King (J.K. Simmons) is gunned down portion moving a lawsuit successful secret. Once the Commissioner Gordon to The Accountant’s Batman – fitting, arsenic Affleck and Simmons person since played that dynamic successful the DC Extended Universe – King has lone been pursuing leads successful which he’s emotionally invested. His decease leaves down an intricate puzzle for Wolff to solve, alongside King’s Treasury Department successor, the returning Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson). The lawsuit that got King killed opens up a web of quality trafficking betwixt Central America and the confederate U.S., exposing the ways successful which undocumented immigrants who person small ineligible recourse are brutally exploited. Where the archetypal movie was mostly unsentimental astir its cardinal crippled (which revolved astir a robotics firm), The Accountant 2 conjures immense sympathy with its topical melodrama and the enigma of King’s death.

But arsenic somber arsenic this communicative seems astatine archetypal blush, it’s besides peppered with wildly amusing moments of character. That begins with Wolff’s re-introduction, during which helium games a speed-dating algorithm by sprucing up his illustration successful each the close ways, lone to botch each face-to-face encounter. It’s the cleanable benignant of silly, placing Wolff’s isolation beforehand and halfway portion mounting up his impending reunion with his estranged brother, chap declaration slayer Braxton (Jon Bernthal), whose assistance helium seeks to lick King’s murder. Also assisting Wolff is his returning, remote, technologically savvy adjunct Justine (Allison Robertson, replacing Allison Wright from the archetypal film), a nonverbal nonmigratory of a mansion-like academy for young autistic students. She has her ain legion of hackers-in-training this time, à la Professor X – who she adjacent quotes astatine 1 point. Like I said: perfectly silly, adjacent if the portrayal of neurodivergence perpetually threatens to extremity (but ne'er afloat does) into offensiveness.

A mysterious, scarily susceptible assassin known lone arsenic Anaïs (Daniella Pineda) seems to someway beryllium progressive successful King’s case, but The Accountant 2’s lopsided operation ensures that she disappears for lengthy periods. However, the layers it reveals to her seemingly single-minded quality bash retroactively warrant those absences. After all, this is the benignant of movie wherever nary substance however galore conveniences origin its jigsaw pieces to click into place, the effect is nary little entertaining.

Just similar The Accountant, whose heightened code and reliance connected tried-and-true storytelling devices – tremendous coincidences, long-lost household connections – wouldn’t consciousness retired of spot successful a Bollywood movie,the sequel likewise runs a crowd-pleasing gamut. The enactment is susceptible and clear. The plot, portion analyzable successful structure, takes the characters to absorbing places (both geographically and emotionally). The drama is fine-tuned and, astir importantly, wholly character-and-performance based.

Things simmer connected a mean occurrence until Bernthal shows up and instantly sets the surface ablaze. An histrion agelong compared to Robert De Niro, helium yet gets his ain “You talkin’ to me?” infinitesimal successful The Accountant 2, which paves the way for Braxton’s astonishing vulnerability – he’s a lost, lonely psyche who conscionable wants his older brother’s friendship. Affleck, contempt a dependable that seems much influenced by The Simpsons’ Comic Book Guy this clip around, returns seamlessly to the relation of Wolff. Having retreated astir wholly to the solitude of his tricked-out Airstream trailer, helium seems to privation to link arsenic well, but his misreadings of his brother’s assemblage connection and intentions marque this difficult. Braxton is frank and playful, and Bernthal imbues the character’s assemblage connection with an easy-going fluidity, which makes for an enchantingly comic opposition with Wolff’s unwavering stiffness.

The clashes betwixt the brothers are the movie’s bosom and psyche – this particularly comes to airy during their downtime from vigilantism (and from Medina’s disapproval of their methods). One country successful an LA quadrate dancing barroom is simply a peculiar delight, betwixt Braxton’s eagerness to propulsion hands, and Wolff’s wonderfully roundabout methods of flirtation, which involves him calculating his mode onto the creation floor. It’s a series that demonstrates O’Connor knowing that question and quality are intrinsically bound, and successful enactment cinema, you can’t truly person 1 without gathering up the other.

The Accountant 2 is simply a amazingly sentimental sequel, which keeps adjacent the astir scattered elements of its crippled firmly glued together. It’s filled with the benignant of unapologetic food that Hollywood enactment has agelong since replaced with irreverent, quippy snark, ensuring that its wit and play spell hand-in-hand astatine each turn, resulting successful 1 of the year’s astir well-rounded workplace pictures.