“The Accountant” is directed by Gavin O’Conner (Miracle) and stars Ben Affleck (Batman v Superman), Anna Kendrick (Pitch Perfect), JK Simmons (Whiplash), and John Bernthal (Grudge Match). The movie is about a guy with high function autism who makes a living as an accountant (in case the title wasn’t obvious), while using a CPA office in a rather unknown town as a cover. He takes on a robotics company as a client, and JK Simmons is keeping an eye out towards Ben Affleck’s character. As Affleck gets closer to a discrepancy having to do with a lot of money, the body count increases.

Now I’m gonna get personal with you just for a moment. I, like Christian Wolff played by Ben Affleck himself, have high function autism. This means I have trouble socializing, I am sensitive to certain things like loud noises (even though I go to the movie theater whenever I can), although some people are sensitive to flashing lights. When I was a kid, I had sometimes lacked eye contact with people I talked to. Does this make me stupid? Not at all, I’m actually pretty freaking smart, not to show off or anything. This movie’s portrayal of autism, for the most part, is accurate. There is one big thing that is going through my mind and it’s more of a nitpick if anything and I’ll come back to it later.

Ben Affleck in this movie plays the autistic protagonist Christian Wolff. I really enjoyed seeing this character, and the way they used flashbacks on this character from when he was a kid was a smart move and it made the movie better in some ways. I may be somewhat biased, but I want to see Affleck nominated for some awards for this performance because when it comes to portraying a guy with autism, he does it well without overacting or overemphasizing in any sort of way. His chemistry with characters like Dana Cummings was also pleasing to see to me.

On that subject, Dana Cummings was played by Anna Kendrick and I think she nailed her performance in this film. I would even go as far to say she should be nominated for best supporting actress in the Oscars. Just like Affleck I saw no sign whatsoever of overacting, and she seemed to maintain the same emotions throughout the film.

JK Simmons is also in this movie as Ray King, a Treasury agent. When I first saw the original trailer for the film I was excited to see JK Simmons was in it. In case you weren’t aware, JK Simmons is one of my all time favorite actors. He was phenomenal in “Whiplash”, I loved him as J. Jonah Jameson in Sam Raimi’s “Spider-Man” trilogy, and whenever I hear him yell, it’s gold. Did he do that in this movie? No, based on how his character was written that would have been out of place and would have interfered with the movie’s overall structure. JK Simmons’ character overall wasn’t my favorite character in the movie. Does that mean his character sucks? No. I just think other characters stood out compared to him. One of the problems I have with JK’s character is that there is a long segment of background information and it seems to drag on quite a bit. It could be worse, but that’s one con I have with the movie.

Speaking of problems, I have a couple more. Christian Wolff, the hero meant to be portrayed in such light, is also kind of villainous, I won’t go into detail to avoid some spoilery things so I’ll let you see for yourself. Next, I felt like throughout the movie I had to watch it more than once. NOTE: I didn’t say I want to, I said I had to. What do I mean? I mean that there are some tidbits that may have been important to the story that may have flown over my head. Sure, sometimes in a movie you don’t get everything the first time around, but I figured I’d point it out. For the record, I wasn’t falling asleep, I had a soda with me so that was decreasing my chances of doing so. Although I was watching this movie in a reclining seat so maybe that had something to do with this. The last problem I will mention is that nitpick I steered away from earlier, and also before I get into this, I could be wrong here. In the movie there were several scenes where Ben Affleck was firing all sorts of weapons. I can’t remember if they stated how sensitive his ears were, but if they were sensitive, the movie probably should have verified that Affleck had earplugs in his ears, otherwise he’d probably startle after firing his own weapon. There were actually points where “I” startled when several shots were firing. Granted I do have sensitive ears, and it is a movie theater where things sound louder than they do at home, but I can’t help but point this out. There were some points where he had headphones on but other times there was nothing on his ears. He was carrying smaller weapons so maybe if he is sensitive it doesn’t go that far.

The Accountant overall is a great movie. It has a stellar portrayal of autism, a lot of the backstories made this movie excellent, Ben Affleck and Anna Kendrick have both given stunning performances, but it doesn’t mean the movie lacks problems. Despite said problems, I really enjoyed this movie, which leads me to saying for now I’m gonna give The Accountant an 8/10. I’m still skeptical on whether or not I’m gonna keep this rating, but for now I’d say the positives in the movie outweighed the negatives. I may also be biased on my rating since I have autism so therefore I can relate to the main character of this movie but even if I didn’t have autism there’s lots to enjoy about the movie. Next weekend I am planning to see “Keeping Up With the Joneses” so stay tuned for that review, along with other reviews I’ll have up on here at some point. Scene Before is your click, to the flicks!