THE ACCOUNTANT 2

Name: THE ACCOUNTANT 2
Item: THE ACCOUNTANT 2
Author: Review

"Desperate Rescue Full of Humor and Heart, but Flawed"

Family Content: -3 Excessive sex, violence, immorality, and/or worldview problems. (Sometimes excessive content such as violence is in otherwise redemptive movies.)

Entertainment Quality:

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

Credits →

What You Need To Know:

THE ACCOUNTANT 2 re-teams Ben Affleck in the title role with Director Gavin O’Connor and Writer Bill Dubuque. Affleck’s OCD math savant asks his wild estranged brother, played by Jon Bernthal, to help him and a federal agent track down an immigrant family from El Salvador. The family, two parents and a young boy, was kidnapped eight years ago by a dangerous human trafficking cartel. The cartel’s just killed the federal agent’s former boss, but the boss gets a final message out to her to “find the Accountant.” So, she finds Christian, the obsessive-compulsive math savant. Eventually Chris enlists his estranged brother, Braxton’s, aid. Both are dangerous men when provoked.

The plot in THE ACCOUNTANT 2 is sometimes convoluted. Also, some scenes develop character more than story. However, THE ACCOUNTANT 2 tells a rousing, sizzling story with humor and heart. The three heroes bicker but rescue a family and some children. Sadly, though, THE ACCOUNTANT 2 has some very strong violence. Also, the wild brother is a loquacious satirical guy who uses way too much strong foul language. THE ACCOUNTANT 2 is not for most audiences.

Content:

(BB, C, PP, LLL, VVV. S, N, A, D, M):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Strong moral worldview with some redemptive content where heroes risk their lives and wellbeing to fight a deadly dangerous human trafficking cartel on both sides of the American/Mexican border to rescue a family and the story evolves to include a rescue of a bunch of children in danger of being murdered, plus a federal American agent is involved in helping to overcome the evil cartel and leading federal policing efforts;

Foul Language:

About 67 obscenities (including 51 “f” words), one profanity using the name of Jesus, five GD profanities, two light profanities, and one obscene gesture;

Violence:

Some very strong action violence and lots of strong action violence includes lot of point black shootings and shots to the forehead, several gunfights with people shot dead, a big final gunfight with may bad guys shot dead, grenades tossed, some smoke grenades tossed, multiple physical fights using mixed martial arts where arms are bent, etc.;

Sex:

No sex scenes but plot involves taking down a human trafficking ring so the idea of sex slavery is part of it but not explicitly discussed, plus two men hire three street walkers to come to their motel room to get some information out of them about their pimp so they can track down the bigger boss and details about his operation;

Nudity:

Some images of upper male nudity when the title character’s brother has his shirt off;

Alcohol Use:

Some alcohol use;

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

Some smoking but no drugs; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

Story involves a vicious human trafficking cartel putting children’s lives at risk, but the heroes are fighting to overcome these bad guys though they sometimes use vigilante/lawless methods.

More Detail:

THE ACCOUNTANT 2 re-teams Ben Affleck in the title role with Director Gavin O’Connor and Writer Bill Dubuque. Affleck’s OCD math savant asks his wild estranged brother, played by Jon Bernthal, to help him and a federal agent track down a family from El Salvador that was kidnapped eight years ago by a dangerous human trafficking cartel that’s just killed the federal agent’s former boss. Despite a convoluted plot and scenes meant to develop character more than story, THE ACCOUNTANT 2 is a thriller with humor and heart, but it has some very strong violence, and the wild brother is a loquacious satirical guy who uses lots of strong foul language.

The movie starts with the former boss of Federal Agent Maybeth Medina, who works on financial crimes, being killed by a hit team sent to silence him. The man, named Ray King, was meeting with a professional hit woman to help him find a young family from El Salvador who disappeared eight years ago after being kidnapped by a dangerous human trafficking cartel. The mother’s father hired Ray to find his daughter. However, the hit woman can tell that the cartel has sent a bunch of hitmen outside the bingo hall where they’re meeting. Before they split up to avoid both of them getting killed, Ray shows her a photo of the family, a married couple and a young boy. One of the men kills Ray, but Ray writes, “Find the Accountant,” in all caps on his arm before he dies.

So, Agent Medina locates the Accountant, Chris Wolf, played by Ben Affleck. Chris and Medina are at first perplexed by the papers Ray left behind him. However, they find the photo of the trafficked family. Also, Chris figures out the family went missing along the Texas/Mexican border, in Juarez.

As Chris and Medina start investigating further, they realize they need more people to help them. Agent Medina wants to use the FBI, but Chris suggests his estranged brother, Braxton. However, Brax is a loose cannon, and Medina doesn’t like Chris and Brax’s extra-legal methods of finding information. So, they start working the case separately, but the cartel’s leaders have a network of killers who’ll stop at nothing to keep their human trafficking operations secret.

The plot in THE ACCOUNTANT 2 is a little convoluted. Not everything is explained, so viewers have to do a little work to keep up with what’s happening. Also, the script inserts scenes and bits of business to develop character rather than story. That said, what saves the movie is that the scenes are funny, have some valuable insights or later become important or crucial to the story. Such scenes can be valuable in and of themselves because they help the movie develop likeable characters that will attract a viewer’s interest.

So, THE ACCOUNTANT 2 is a thriller with humor and heart. For example, Christain’s brother, Brax, complains that Chris hasn’t called him in eight years, and only contacts him when he needs his help. After a testy and humorous exchange, Chris reminds his brother that he had his phone number too. It’s a good scene, and it helps set the stage for their reconciliation later at the end.

The movie also builds up sympathy for the federal agent, Marybeth Medina, and, of course for the family. It turns out that the son is now a young teenagers who’s being held captive outside Juarez by the cartel. The movie implies that the cartel is forcing the boy and some other children to do hard labor for them. This sets up the action-centric ending where Chris and Brax must rescue the boy and the other children before the cartel has them killed.

It also turns out that Chris gets help from a team of young people like him, obsessive compulsive nerds with special skills in retrieving information or manipulating technology. One of the people is a young woman who’s mute but acts as Chris’ eyes and ears and communicates with him via keyboard and a voice app that gives her an English accent. Director Gavin O’Connor gives her and the other young savants enough screen time for viewers to identify with them.

To sum up, THE ACCOUNTANT 2 has a moving, exciting story. It shows three heroes taking a stand to overcome a despicable human trafficking cartel. However, THE ACCOUNTANT 2 has some very strong violence and a high body count. Also, the wild estranged brother is a loquacious, satirical man who uses lots of strong foul language, which includes many “f” words and several strong profanities (see the CONTENT section for details). So, MOVIEGUIDE® finds the movie too much for most audiences.