Review of The Accountant (2016) by Augustine H — 30 Jan 2017

I should make the point, going in, that I am not now, nor have I ever been, a fan of Ben Affleck. I went to see this movie because it looked mildly interesting and it was at the cheap theater and we'd already seen the other ones that seemed worth seeing. That was the first week. The two weeks after that, I went to see it for love. It's a tremendously great movie, just like it was made back in the day when they went out of their way to make really good movies with actual plots and acting in them, where the action made sense more than it made up a good excuse for a slow motion leather clad crotch scene. Both my sons, neither of whom like to go see movies, liked this movie so much that one of them went to see it again, the second week, and, the other one was jealous even though he hadn't wanted to see any movie at all until this one started. On the 3rd week, a man was asking the cashier, "Is The Accountant any good." and we rolled up on him with a resounding "Yes!" Later on, even though the man looked dubious going in, I saw him do that classic good-movie potty dance that I haven't seen for decades, where someone really needs to go but doesn't at all want to and then finally runs real fast there and back so they won't miss too much. A grown man, running like a little kid, to make sure he doesn't miss one more second than necessary of a not so well known movie in a cheap theater.

We didn't go see it last week, nor did we go see it for the first two weeks, at least, that it was at the theater. That means, since it is still here this week, that this movie has now been at the same theater for at least 7 weeks! The last Star Wars movie, which had Han Solo in it, didn't last that long at this theater.

So, yes, this movie is good. It's funny, charming, sad, witty, romantic and, in its own odd way, an endearing lesson about finding out what you really value. I don't know why it has such a poor rating. Have to assume that's all from the people who were disgruntled over having to turn their phone off, pay attention and think.