WATCH: BEN AFFLECK PLAYS JASON BOURNE IN ‘THE ACCOUNTANT’ TRAILER
Ben Affleck is an 'accountant' with many secrets which happen to unfold in shootouts or uncovering stolen money. So yeah, Ben Affleck is playing Jason Bourne.
Affleck stars as Christian Wolff in the debut trailer for this action thriller adaptation of the novel. Wolff is a high-functioning autistic man with OCD whose true identity and profession are shrouded in ambiguity. Far from a typical accountant, Wolff’s work frequently sees him in perilous missions involving shoot outs and uncovering financial records for stolen cash.
To be honest, we have no idea what this guy even does or where the true action of the film lies, but that’s what makes ‘The Accountant’ so intriguing.
The trailer gives us a brief but compelling snapshot of Wolff’s character and the film’s premise. This is skillfully done, with strategic edits that cut between Wolff’s troubled childhood, and his present state, who has a proclivity for symmetrical English Breakfasts. The sombre mood is captured by the backing song, Radiohead’s Everything in Its Right Place, an obvious allusion to Wolff’s OCD, which at times does little to add to the story except single this guy out for being neuroatypical.
The trailer benefits from the use of motifs interspersed throughout, from the tapping of Wolff’s fingers in his office, his breakfasts, to close ups of his shadowed features and memories from his childhood. It’s fascinating how editing alone can suggest the inner workings of a character’s psyche.
Wolf channels his inner Jason Bourne and I'm not sure we need any more Jason Bournes in the world. ‘The Accountant’ isn't genre shattering, but hopefully Affleck offers us a refreshing take on the action thriller genre.
Synopsis from IMDB:
Christian Wolff is a math savante with more affinity for numbers than people. Behind the cover of a small-town CPA office, he works as a freelance accountant for some of the world's most dangerous criminal organizations. With the Treasury Department's Crime Enforcement Division, run by Ray King, starting to close in, Christian takes on a legitimate client: a state-of-the-art robotics company where an accounting clerk has discovered a discrepancy involving millions of dollars. But as Christian uncooks the books and gets closer to the truth, it is the body count that starts to rise.