Providing just the right combination of buddy comedy banter and darkly humorous action, The Accountant 2 is a perfect Friday night popcorn flick, carried by the enjoyable performances of Ben Affleck and Jon Bernthal.

Premise: The death of an associate draws estranged brothers Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck) and Braxton (Jon Bernthal) – an underworld accountant and a hitman – into an investigation of a criminal conspiracy.

Review:

It’s been nine years since The Accountant was released, and I think it’s fair to say that not many were expecting (or asking for) a sequel to the 2016 action/thriller. I enjoyed the first film enough when I saw it, but the main thing I remembered it for was the leftfield twist it took when what first appeared to be a fairly grounded thriller starring Ben Affleck as an autistic accountant helping Anna Kendrick’s character look into “accounting irregularities” suddenly became an all-out action movie, when it was revealed that Ben Affleck’s Christian Wolff was, in fact, a lethal badass.

Nine years later we now have The Accountant 2, which is a sequel that does very little to get new audience members caught up, and instead appears to assume that most viewers will remember what happened in the first film. But then again, this isn’t the kind of film that you watch for the plot – this is a rollercoaster ride of a popcorn flick, and so whether you’re familiar with the backstory of Chris Wolff and his brother Braxton (Jon Bernthal) or you’re coming to this series for the first time, my advice would be to just go with it, sit back, and enjoy the ride.

“…you don’t really need to know any of the backstory to have a fun time…”

For those unfamiliar with the first film, all you really need to know is that Ben Affleck and Jon Bernthal play brothers who both operate in the criminal underworld – Affleck’s Christian launders money manages criminals’ finances, while Bernthal’s Braxton is a hitman – but don’t worry, they both have a ‘heart of gold’ and only hurt bad people. Because of Christian’s ‘code of conduct’, he previously secretly worked with J.K. Simmons’ US Treasury Department agent and provided him with tips to bust the really bad people – and then when J.K. Simmons’ character retired, Cynthia Addai-Robinson’s Marybeth Medina took over as the Deputy Director of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and continued her uneasy alliance with Christian Wolff. Oh, and Christian Wolff also secretly supports, and operates through, Harbor Neuroscience, a clinic for gifted children on the autistic spectrum, just as Christian was.

All caught up? Good. But rest assured … you don’t really need to know any of that to have a fun time with The Accountant 2. All you need to know is that the death of a mutual associate forces Marybeth Medina to turn to Christian Wolff again for help piecing together a case that the victim was investigating, and this in turn forces Christian to reach out to his estranged brother Braxton for support.

“…the scenes between Christian & Braxton are by far the best thing about this movie…”

And it’s there that The Accountant 2 really picks up (and in my opinion, is a more enjoyable film that its predecessor), because the scenes between Christian and Braxton are by far the best thing about this movie. In the first film, Braxton was very much a shadowy character in the background, and given that viewers didn’t know he was Christian’s brother until the end, there was no suggestion that he may have also been on the autistic spectrum – but in the sequel, he’s very much the second lead character, and it quickly becomes apparent as the audience spends more time with him that Braxton is definitely also on the spectrum, albeit not as far along it as Christian.

I’m not qualified to comment on how realistic the films’ portrayal of autism is, or how those with autism may react to it – but all I’m in a position to say is that I never felt that the film was asking audiences to laugh at autism or the autistic characters. The characters are treated with kindness and respect by the filmmakers – it’s clear, for example, that Christian wants to find emotional connections but struggles to conform to expectations in social settings, as demonstrated in an early scene at a speed dating event. It’s also clear that Braxton is similarly looking for companionship, as illustrated in another early scene where he’s attempting to buy a puppy – but what makes the film so satisfying is that over the course of the movie, the brothers are able to rebuild their fraternal relationship and find that bond that they’ve both been missing.

“…‘The Accountant 2’ is a very funny film…”

I’m not trying to make the film sound more intellectual than it is – I’m just saying that the filmmakers aren’t mocking the brothers’ neurodivergences as much as they are celebrating them. Christian’s and Braxton’s often inappropriate honesty does result in a lot of the film’s funniest moments, but we’re always laughing with them, not at them.

And make no mistake, The Accountant 2 is a very funny film, much more so than the original one. The thriller elements of the plot are functional, but I’m not sure they hold up to much scrutiny, and the action sequences are undeniably very well staged, but on their own they probably wouldn’t be enough to make this film stand out from the crowd. What does make the film stand out is the streak of dark humour than runs through everything, from the sibling bickering to the brutal action sequences. The comedic peak of the film is probably when the brothers take a break from their investigation to attend a line-dancing night at a country bar, and the events of the evening neatly sum up both of their characters.

“…turns ‘dumb fun’ into an art form…”

It’s easy to dismiss The Accountant 2 as dumb fun, because if I’m being totally honest, that’s exactly what it is. But some films do ‘dumb fun’ poorly, and others – like this one – turn it into an art form. After watching the first film, I didn’t really give The Accountant much further thought – but after seeing The Accountant 2, I’m actually quite looking forward to the proposed conclusion of the trilogy.