The Accountant 2 (2025)

​“The Accountant 2” stars Ben Affleck, Jon Bernthal, Cynthia Addai-Robinson, Daniella Pineda, Allison Robertson, and J. K. Simmons.  Released on April 25, 2025, the film has Christian Wolff joining forces with his brother to solve a murder.

The film was directed by Gavin O’Connor, who also directed films such as “Comfortably Numb”, “Miracle”, “Pride and Glory”, “Jane Got a Gun”, and “The Way Back”.  It is a sequel to O’Connor’s action thriller, “The Accountant”.  People who are diagnosed with autism can bring about a series of challenges for others, especially with how they behave or approach specific topics.  But they’re also known for seeing and doing things in ways other people couldn’t, helping others see them with a different perspective.  As someone who’s also diagnosed with autism, I can heavily relate to that.  For someone like Christian Wolff, their gifted knowledge can do more than just help people.  2016’s “The Accountant” utilized the action thriller tropes to depict Ben Affleck’s autistic character using his talent of creative accounting to take down more than just taxes.  While a mild box office success, the film was met with mixed reviews, with its depiction of autism receiving the most criticism.  Despite that, Hollywood decided to bring Wolff out of retirement for another round of criminal-busting and tax-destroying mayhem almost a decade after the first film.  Was it able to take its predecessor’s issues into account?  Let’s find out.

The story again follows Christian Wolff (Affleck), also known as “The Accountant”, as he’s traveling across the country following the predecessor’s events.  However, Wolff’s new peaceful life was eventually interrupted by his confrontation with former Treasury Agent turned deputy director Marybeth Medina (Addai-Robinson).  Marybeth tasked Christian with finding the people responsible for murdering her mentor, Raymond King (Simmons), resulting in him returning to the past he left behind.  With the help of his estranged brother Braxton (Bernthal), Christian resorts to his brilliant mind and skills to solve the case King started.  Unfortunately, their investigation puts the brothers and Marybeth at odds against the killers, who are determined to end their search, resulting in the estranged brothers putting aside their differences to fight back.

“The Accountant” was one of the earlier films I reviewed during my website’s early years.  I didn’t say much about it since I was at a point where I occasionally resorted to the pro/con bullet point approach to get my point across.  Thankfully, that writing approach didn’t last long as I grew more fond of explaining my thoughts in detail.  I remember saying it didn’t do anything new to the genre but was solid enough to emphasize Ben Affleck’s portrayal of Wolff and the action sequences.  It also made me happy to see the autism diagnosis represented well in the film.  Was it overlong?  Yes, but it’s the type of slow-burn thriller that I could get behind.  This made me skeptical about its follow-up since I thought the first film’s ending tied things up well.  Fortunately, those concerns may have been put to rest after hearing the early reviews praising it as one of the few sequels that improve upon their predecessors.  This got me wondering what they saw in the sequel that made it better than the original.

The trailers indicated that “The Accountant 2” focuses more on the bond between Christian and Braxton as they reluctantly team up to solve the case of the missing Salvadorian family.  In comparison, the first film focused more on Christian sanitizing financial records for criminals, while Braxton made a few appearances as an assassin.  As a result, the sequel leans heavily on the "buddy action comedy" narrative while retaining the predecessor’s slow-burn mystery thriller approach.  This direction seemed to have worked well for the critics who saw it early at the South by Southwest Festival last month, but was it able to work for me?  I was hoping to find that answer sooner, but my schedule got in the way, so I had to wait until the weekend after its release to solve this case myself.  On the bright side, it allowed me to rewatch the first movie to prepare myself for the sequel.  Following my experience with “The Accountant 2”, I can definitely see the comparison between the two.

While both movies share a similar tone regarding their grim atmosphere and brutal violence, “The Accountant 2” attempted to provide some of its light-hearted elements into the mix, mainly the brotherly chemistry between Christian and Braxton.  The result is a surprisingly fun and suitably directed sequel that emphasizes the charisma and bond of the estranged brothers while retaining its predecessor’s thrills, craft, and mystery vibes.  More importantly, it successfully recalculated some of the first film’s issues to make it a well-deserved improvement over its predecessor.  Those issues in question were the pacing and narrative.  While I appreciated its predecessor for its filmmaking craft and enticing violence, some of the scenes in between dragged a bit for me.  The story can also be confusing if you’re not paying attention, especially with its slow-burn approach.  Fortunately, director Gavin O’Connor and writer Bill Dubuque understood this miscalculation and used their sequel as an opportunity to fix those issues.  “The Accountant 2” provided a much better pace despite being a few minutes longer than the first film, and the plot, while straightforward by design, was easier for me to decipher.

The pacing in this film was due to the primary heart of the story: Christian and Braxton.  With its focus on the estranged brothers, the film allowed its audience to feel more connected with them through their chemistry and even the humor.  While the latter may sound risky, Gavin O’Connor, who directed the first movie, ensured the tone was strategically organized to avoid signs of pointless tonal whiplash.  The filmmaker maintains his signature bleak yet impressively shot vision, especially regarding Seamus McGarvey’s wide-angle cinematography and the engaging action, but his lively approach to the characters’ chemistry felt refreshing amid the brutality and slow-burn tension.  Not only was it effective in providing some genuinely amusing moments between the protagonists that didn’t feel out of place, but it was also surprisingly heartfelt in their brotherly relationship.  

Bill Dubuque’s screenplay adheres to the fundamental elements of a traditional mystery thriller.  However, it also highlights the character growth between Christian and Braxton, with the former attempting to connect with others and fulfill the role of Braxton’s big brother despite his autism.  Much like my experience with the first film, I found myself relating to “The Accountant 2” because I, too, am working on connecting with other people.  It’s a work in progress that’s been going pretty smoothly.  Of course, with Christian being autistic, along with the children from the New Hampshire compound, the film also had the task of representing autism in a way that doesn’t feel too stereotypical to the point of being offensive.  Based on what I’ve seen, I didn’t have much of an issue with its representation, especially with how Christian’s methods differ from others.  The script does have a few problems involving its tropes and not following through with its themes on a sentimental level.  Still, it’s functional enough to deliver a solid, straightforward thriller that’s accessible in its plot and approachable in its buddy chemistry and dialogue.

The chemistry between the estranged brothers also benefited strongly from its main leads, Ben Affleck and Jon Bernthal, who reprised their roles from the first movie.  Affleck continues to deliver on his calculations regarding his compelling and nuanced portrayal of Christian and his condition.  He retained the subtlety of Christian’s constrained demeanor and conveyed a charismatic approach that I couldn’t help but get attached to, even when he was intellectually pointing out the details.  Regarding my experience with Jon Bernthal, the actor didn’t stay on my radar until 2016 when he appeared in Netflix’s “Daredevil” as The Punisher.  Since then, I have paid close attention to his supporting roles, which I was glad to do because he was pretty darn good in “Daredevil: Born Again”.  For his role of Braxton, Bernthal attempted to go for a more humorous, “younger brother” approach to the deadly assassin, and the result was…surprisingly enjoyable.  I was worried he might wind up going too far deep in his comical moments.  Thankfully, Bernthal managed to refrain from doing so without losing the dynamic energy he was going for, resulting in a performance worthy of his talents and the film’s pacing.  Cynthia Addai-Robinson also did a good job portraying Marybeth Medina and making her character’s chemistry with Christian just as enjoyable as the brothers’ interactions.

Overall, “The Accountant 2” fixes most of its predecessor’s miscalculations to provide a straightforward yet consistently entertaining file marked for financial approval.  Despite being a bit longer than the first film and the genre tropes overshadowing its narrative potential, the sequel offers enough moments in its thrills and charm to highlight the brothers’ chemistry and its fun concept.  Ben Affleck and Jon Bernthal provided a delightful brotherly bond worthy of coinciding with the film’s well-shot cinematography and Gavin O’Connor’s direction of its mixture of brutal violence and buddy comedy.  The story and pacing were also suitable improvements that make the follow-up a more approachable experience compared to its predecessor.  If the upcoming third film is anything like this, we could be looking at another trilogy that improves in each installment, which is a sign of good faith for Affleck and O’Connor.  Regardless of your thoughts towards its predecessor, it’s worth watching if you’re a fan of Affleck and mystery thrillers.

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