The Accountant 2

• Directed by Gavin O’Connor
• March 8, 2025 (SXSW) / April 25, 2025 (US)

Christian Wolff must solve the Treasury chief’s murder.

I absolutely loved The Accountant. It and a discussion with my late cat Cindy were responsible for the creation of this very blog. Thus, I was really excited to hear a sequel was finally coming out. If any action movie of the past few years deserved a sequel it was The Accountant.

The Accountant 2 continues the awkward nature of Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck). It’s not in a mean spirited away but the guy has extreme difficulty interacting with individuals. When he tries to be like others he just can’t be. We first see him at a dating event having rigged things to get more potential matches.

One thing I appreciated about the last movie was that it was not a shock there was something different about Christian. You could see it in Affleck’s performance. The character avoided eye contact. He had an odd speech pattern. Affleck maintains that here. Conversely the character is able to engage more personally with his brother than before which feels…off. It is not that he can connect with his brother but it feels easier for Christian than in the original.

Rather than focusing on the plot/mystery, this gets much more into the relationship between Christian and his brother Braxton (John Bernthal). I think that’s a bit of a misstep. I don’t mind them teaming up but the focus of the story must be whatever Christian Wolff is confronting and not the relationship between Christian and his brother. The action aspect become secondary here. The personal aspects are to give the story meat and not to be what it is about.

In that vein we get much more of deputy director of the Treasury Department’s FinCEN Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) investigating her predecessor Ray King’s (J. K. Simmons) murder. He wrote on his arm to ‘Find The Accountant’ and she does so with surprising ease despite the guy successfully evading law enforcement for years. King wanted to find him for some time but came up empty.

What worked largely about The Accountant was the title character being a mysterious other that could occasionally be a bit of a benefactor and a bit of benevolent help. Yet what starts the ball rolling is Ray’s death and his command or last request to find Christian Wolf. Finally coming face-to-face with The Accountant should’ve been a bit of a payoff for the climax rather a start to things. 

This goes heavier on the humor than before. Then again there is also more on bonding between the brothers than earlier with the story of the amnesiac-mother-turned-assassin (Daniella Pineda) coming and going a bit. Diving into that would have been better with Marybeth and Wolff meeting as the beginning of the climax.

That’s not to say it’s completely bad. I just don’t think it’s necessarily a theatrical experience. It’s just not special enough to plunk down 25 or so dollars. That’s how much it ran me last time I saw a movie for snacks and the ticket. This is something that probably would’ve found more success if it been released directly on streaming. I say that because it’s much better than many of the action-oriented streaming releases, I’ve watched recently.

I liked the return of Justine (Allison Robertson performance/computerized voice by Alison Wright) who almost entirely in the original was never seen. It was nice to see her on screen but the addition of her kid helpers brought the character down a bit. He reveal in The Accountant was one of the best twists I had seen in ages. I guess I wanted her to be more on her own in what she did here.

Bernthal and Affleck work well together. They sell the sibling bond. Bernthal’s Braxton clearly loves his brother but has trouble understanding why he cannot in some way return that affection. Their action scenes were excellent.

The Accountant 2 is an adequate follow up to the first film. Not as good but not completely unwatchable. While I do wish there was less humor, between that and the action I think you’ll enjoy it.