The Accountant

First Hit:  I walked away liking this film because it drew me into the dramatic story while also being out-loud funny during the interchanges between Christian and Dana.

A young Christian Wolff (Seth Lee) is shown as a highly functional autistic young boy. His wizardry is displayed by completing a complex puzzle upside down. His parents, Chris and his brother Brax (played by Jake Presley as the boy and Jon Bernthal as an adult) are visiting the Harbor Neuroscience Institute home to find out how to help their son survive in the world. Although they are offered help, the father thinks there are other ways to “fix” his son. Throughout this film we are treated to some of those ways, which gives us the back story as to why Christian and Brax are so relentlessly good at using guns and martial arts. What didn’t make sense to me was how these brothers got separated later in life.

To make a living, the adult Christian (Ben Affleck) is an accountant with extraordinary skills to help clients resolve any type of financial issue. Because of his condition, he is relentless at completing the job and is incredibly efficient. We see him help a farmer husband and wife team as well as seeing pictures where he’s working with the mob, other criminals, and foreign entities.

When called on a new case by “The Voice” (a phone voice only with a smiley face in the phone's interface), he's asked to discover where the missing money is for Living Robotics, a company headed by CEO Lamar Blackburn (John Lithgow). After arriving at company headquarters, he sits down to meet with the CFO and CEO for an interview. The interview is amusing, but the audience sees why he gets the job. On the first day of work, he’s greeted by Dana Cummings (Anna Kendrick) who is the company’s accountant that discovered the accounting problem. During the introduction, and almost every interaction past this, the discussion between these two is interesting, funny and engaging. A definite highlight to this film.

When he discovers the problem, and the source reasons behind the diversion of funds, the film changes tenor and it becomes more of an action thriller.

While all this is going on, Ray King (J.K. Simmons) a Director at the Treasury Department, is trying to find out who changed his life before he retires. What he knows is that someone saved his life, and that there are a few brief pictures of a person that seems to know a lot of criminals, helps them with funneling money, but might have a deadly hand as well.

To assist him, King hires Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) by leveraging her past and gives her a month to find this ghost of a person. Yup, you guessed it, it’s The Accountant. This part of the film felt like a side note to highlight a particular aspect of Christian’s background. Additionally, it also provided a level of context of law and authority to Christian’s actions. However I thought it convoluted the story and imagined this film would have worked by leaving this part out, and this isn’t what happened. Regardless, I found many of the scenes very engaging, interesting, and funny.

Affleck is very strong as Christian. The disassociated looks and the matter-a-fact ways of having verbal exchanges worked for me. Because he needed to be both an efficient accountant and ruthless in actions there had to be a line that he walked that didn’t destroy the illusion of either. Lee was perfect - sublime in all ways. Kendrick was her witty, nerdy, inquisitive self, a role she does so well (think Up in the Air). Her exchanges with Affleck were very well done. Simmons was good as the man affected by The Accountant in a good way. Addai-Robinson was very good as the person needing to not be found out by doing her job well. John Lithgow was adequate as the company owner who was concealing secrets. Jon Bernthal was very strong as Affleck’s brother and protector. Jeffrey Tambor (as Francis Silverberg) was outstanding as Affleck’s cell mate who treated him like a son and gave him knowledge, skills and connections allowing him to make a very good living for himself when he left prison. Bill Dubuque wrote an overly complex screenplay, however it did work. Gavin O’Connor did a wonderful job of weaving together the two stories. Many of the scenes were well shot, like when the farmer scoffs that Christian cannot hit a target a mile away, then Christian pulls the trigger.

Overall:  Leaving the theater, I realized that this film kept me interested and engaged.

The Judge

First Hit:  A very good film and it could have been better.

Having Robert Downey Jr. (as Hank Palmer) and Robert Duvall (as his father Joseph) in the same film can only spell amazing possibilities.

Estranged son Hank is a defense attorney who seems to always get his man freed. He knows the law, how to pick a jury and how to exploit them both to keep his high-end, high ticket clients out of jail. Joseph is a 42 year sitting on the bench judge in the same small town where Hank was raised.

Hank was a difficult child and Joseph felt it important to be a tough, no-nonsense, father. What brings them together in this story is the death of Hank’s mom, Joseph’s wife. The difficulty between the two men is quickly set forth when he sees his father for the first time and Dad simply greets him with a handshake.

On the night after the funeral, Joseph is accused of killing a former criminal by hitting him with his car and leaving the scene of the accident. Of course Hank tries to be his dad’s defense lawyer and there is where the story of reconciliation takes place. Both of these actors have a depth that wasn’t fully mined in the script.

The stubbornness and rigidness that Duvall can bring and the quick witted intelligent banter that Downey is known for was only partially displayed. One the other side of the story the scene of father and son in the bathroom while Hank’s daughter Lauren (Emma Tremblay) knocked on the door to be let in was beautifully executed.

Downey was the perfect person for the part and with a stronger script, more could have been made of his history. Duvall was the perfect person for the part of father and judge. Tremblay was great as Downey’s daughter. Vera Farmiga was divine as Hanks old high school girlfriend Samantha. Billy Bob Thornton as the prosecuting attorney was wonderful. Nick Schenk and Bill Dubuque wrote this engaging but not deep enough script. David Dobkin directed this film and made good use of Duvall and Downey but there was more available to make this film great.

Overall:  I laughed, was touched, and found the story intriguing but it was not quite all it could be.