The Accountant 2 revisits a neurodivergent math savant who violently solves a murder mystery

In this sequel to The Accountant (2016), both director Gavin O’Connor (Warrior, Pride and Glory) and writer Bill Dubuque (The Judge, A Family Man) return with this new story about Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck), an autistic math savant who also happens to have deadly combat skills. He once again employs his brilliant mind and illegal methods to discover who’s behind the murder of former Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) Deputy Chief Ray King (J. K. Simmons), enlisting the help of his assassin brother, Braxton (Jon Bernthal). (100 min.)

Glen: The original film was surprisingly inventive, depicting Christian’s and Braxton’s harrowing origin stories with their unconventional father and Christian’s unusual talents and time in Harbor Neuroscience, an autism center. The originality of the first is unrepeatable, but O’Connor and Dubuque team up to deliver an effective sequel that picks up a bit more than eight years later. It’s a murder mystery that only Christian can solve. King has retired from FinCEN but uses his investigative skills as a private eye on cases he finds meaningful. While meeting with Anaïs (Daniella Pineda) as part of his current investigation, he’s targeted for assassination, but he manages to scrawl “find the accountant” on his arm before he’s killed. Current FinCEN Deputy Chief Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) does, and soon she teams with Christian to find King’s killer and unravel a human trafficking criminal network that King unearthed. Lots of action, lots of characters, and a surprising emotional impact await.

Anna: I remember being impressed with The Accountant when it came out in 2016. It felt original and came with some real surprises. One of the fun things was getting to know the neurodivergent Christian, who Affleck plays with impressive effect. It’s interesting to see how Affleck takes on the character then and now, and how he addresses the subtle changes in Christian over time. Bernthal is back as his gun-for-hire brother, Braxton, an adrenaline junkie who can’t help but poke fun at his big bro. The two play siblings well; they know each other better than anyone else, and with that they know how to easily push each other’s buttons. Marybeth is overwhelmed and disgusted by the violence that the two extol in order to gain information. Hey lady, you called in a fugitive for help, what do you expect? It doesn’t quite pack the punch of the first film, but I still had a lot of fun watching it. I’m fairly certain it could be watched without the context of the first film, you just won’t have as much background on the Harbor and the core of Christian’s backstory. Action film fans should have no qualms paying to see this in the theater.

Glen: Christian’s such an unusual character—an emotionally remote and misunderstood antihero, a sympathetic psychopath with zero empathy but, oddly, with a well-developed moral core. He and Braxton both went through the same early abuse (or “training,” if you align with their father’s worldview), but Braxton’s morality is decidedly different. He feels emotional pain while Christian doesn’t. Both long for connection but are too emotionally stunted in their separate ways to develop it. Is this the beginning of a fine franchise? I’d pay to see what trouble these two get into next.

Anna: Behind the scenes of everything that Christian pulls off is Justine (played by Allison Robertson and voiced by Alison Wright) at the autism institute and the kids who study there. They work as Christian’s team, cracking codes and gaining intel. This is the type of action flick that I find fun. It has over the top bad guys, someone standing in as the morality police, and a couple of vigilantes who must do bad to do good.

Arts Editor Glen Starkey from New Times and freelancer Anna Starkey write Sun Screen. Comment at gstarkey@newtimesslo.com.

This article appears in May 1-11, 2025.