Do you really want to know what those are? Well, for one, the brothers’ duo the American star creates along with Jon Bernthal is cinematic chemistry 101. And the other reason? Read on!
I’ll admit, I wasn’t holding my breath for the sequel to the 2016 film The Accountant, starring Ben Affleck and Jon Bernthal. The first installment was so gratuitously violent and hard to follow in its convoluted side-stories that the idea to sit through a second one didn’t seem worth it.
Then a friend, a colleague with whom I find hanging out at the movies a special treat for me, invited me as his plus one to a special “mixed media” screening of The Accountant 2 and I immediately said yes. Mixed media screenings are fun, as they involve critics, though typically the younger, cooler ones, along with influencers. The cinema is usually done up in the theme of the film we’re going to watch and food and drinks are at hand for a complete experience. This screening was at the Everyman in Borough Yards which is a divine movie theater that also features vegan food options and comfy sofas to sit on. It’s like the movies’ equivalent of a five star hotel.
Turns out that even a softie like me, who cringes at the idea of rumbling seats vibrating with each limb that is cracked and every shot fired from powerful, loud and big guns, can enjoy a film like The Accountant 2, and here’s why.
Chemistry is always key at the movies
Ben Affleck as Christian Wolff and Jon Bernthal as his younger brother Braxton simply smolder on the big screen. They are a great blend of unique looking, bouncing off each other, funny and charming at once. This film, as the first one, was written by Bill Dubuque and directed by Gavin O’Connor, another example of great chemistry, the kind of when-it-aint-broke-dont-fix-it partnership.
As you see in the header image, and from the trailer above, it’s when these two men, these excellent actors sit, stand or shoot side by side that the film takes flight. We buy Christian’s on the spectrum forensic accountant to Braxton’s controlling, insecure contract killer because we buy their relationship with each other. That we — or rather I — didn’t understand all the wheelings and dealings of the story, doesn’t matter. It’s fun to watch, it makes two hours and fifteen odd minutes go by in a flash, and at the end of it, you’re refreshed and superficially satiated, the way only a blockbuster can achieve. It’s almost like you’re glad that was over, and now that your brain is on reset, gotten its fill of violence for the week, you can go on to more positive and productive thoughts. Make sense? Well, to me it does. Cinema is always a way to deal with our daily lives and understanding how to include it more often in everything I do is a lesson I learned recently, from Malay filmmaker Lav Diaz.
That line-dance sequence is worth the price of your ticket alone!
You’ve never seen Ben Affleck dance. Well, not like this.
Let me explain. At the start of The Accountant 2, Christian is getting ready for a speed-dating event. Over his phone on speaker, an automated voice, which is revealed to be crucial to the story later on, tells him what to do, ask and what to wear. “Not the black suit, it makes you look like a mortician,” she admonishes. He’s got the black suit on.
Shortly thereafter he’s at the social event, wearing a blue suit, much more subtly elegant. It still doesn’t make a difference when it comes to his stiff manners and uninspired conversations with the ladies… But then, as the film gets into act two, a very important part of any cinematic story, Christian is joined by his brother as the duo go to a country western bar to get a beer.
There, Christian attracts the attention of a pretty, petite woman wearing shorts, cowboy boots and a straw hat, who comes over to introduce herself and tries to find out his favorite song. “Copland’s Appalachian Spring,” he says, trowing sand into her fire, but not purposely so. She’s cute, she’s kind and she doesn’t judge him. Instead, her dancing is so adorable, that the genius accountant yearns to join in, and thanks to his calculations, manages to get the hang of and the footwork to go along soon enough. So yes, Affleck line dancing, in sneakers, following along, while his brother yells, proudly from the sidelines, “yeah, that’s my brother there!”
That right there is cinematic brilliance and for that alone, I’d go to watch The Accountant 2 again.
The film is now in UK and US cinemas, after premiering at SXSW back in March. It is distributed in the United States by Amazon MGM Studios through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and internationally by the original film's domestic distributor Warner Bros. Pictures. A third installment is in the works.
Top image courtesy of WB, used with permission.