'The Accountant 2' Forgets What Made the First One So Much Fun

2016’s The Accountant was a weird, lightning-in-a-bottle film that found unexpected popularity thanks in no small part to its dad appeal. Ben Affleck starred as Christian Wolff, a neurodivergent accountant who cleaned the books for notorious criminals and was also a highly skilled killer, thanks to his strict military upbringing and training. He gets embroiled in a scheme involving a crooked robotics executive, and mayhem ensues. Throw in Jon Bernthal as his gruff mercenary brother and Anna Kendrick at her perkiest and most awkward, and a surprise recipe for success was made.

More surprising still: nine years later, we’re getting a sequel to this daffy B-movie hodgepodge. Once again written by Bill Dubuque and directed by Gavin O’Connor, this time around, Christian is investigating the murder of retired federal agent Ray King (J.K. Simmons) at the behest of King’s protégé, Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson), both returning from the first film. He enlists Bernthal’s Braxton, and they’re quickly drawn into a plot involving undocumented immigrants and a cabal of cruel coyotes trafficking humans and burying bodies at an alarming rate.

It’s a weird, messy plot replete with gaping holes, but then again, this isn’t a genre where coherence matters much to audiences. The focus is instead on Bernthal and Affleck’s relationship and the school Christian has been funding—a think tank full of child super-hackers who now assist him in his exploits.

It’s a wild ride that often strains belief, but it’s buoyed by some top-notch violence — the sort of brutally balletic gunplay that transcends its genre and is fascinating to watch. The film is at its best when it’s at its loudest—when chaos and carnage surround these unlikely brothers, or when they’re solving the bigger (if often incoherent) mystery.

The problems come in the quiet moments, and there are a lot of them. In turning the story into an oddball buddy-cop movie, the film discards much of what made the first one work. Affleck’s Christian is now less an uncomfortable prodigy struggling with human interactions and more a Rain Man-esque caricature… but with guns. He dresses dorkily, replete with New Balance sneakers, and leans hard into a strange, higher-pitched, almost lisping voice, as if trying to take Hoffman’s (already problematic) portrayal and dial it to eleven. Add in the use of a school full of children to do his dirty work—children who are somehow all genius-level hackers—and the film leans too hard into becoming a neurodivergent X-Men, where any glimpse of the spectrum is essentially a superpower.

The first film managed that delicate line (mostly); here, subtlety is abandoned, and The Accountant 2 careens into near-parody. A friend told me all he could hear in the back of his mind was Kirk Lazarus delivering his Tropic Thunder line, and unfortunately, it fits. The relationship between the brothers is often sacrificed for cheap laughs, with Braxton teasing and tormenting his brother by doing things he knows will set him off. These are still grown men, and reducing them like that completely undermines their dynamic.

There’s a wonderful, emotional moment in the middle of the film, when Braxton breaks down and asks his stoic brother, “Is it because of me … or is it you?” Bernthal delivers the line with real feeling and anxiety—a vulnerable glimpse of true love and brotherhood. I wish the film had leaned into that. Instead, a few beats later, he throws Christian’s sunscreen away, cackling at his distress, and all I could think was… why? Why that choice?

The Accountant 2 will likely be popular, even heralded as a throwback to the buddy comedies of yore. It is funny at times, thanks mostly to Bernthal’s wild performance. But Affleck does his character a disservice, as do the writing and directing. Aside from some enthralling action and a few strong moments, The Accountant 2 feels less like a thoughtful sequel and more like The Accountant for Dummies—a waste of talent, effort, and time.