The Accountant
Warner Bros. | Release Date: October 14, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
51
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 45 Critic Reviews
Positive:
15
Mixed:
24
Negative:
6
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchCalvin WilsonOct 13, 2016
Fresh and delightfully offbeat, The Accountant proves that a thriller can be complex and nuanced while fulfilling its mission to entertain. Read full review
88
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenOct 12, 2016
The premise of accountant as action hero might seem absurd, but The Accountant makes it credible and fascinating. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperOct 12, 2016
Madness abounds in The Accountant, an intense, intricate, darkly amusing and action-infused thriller that doesn’t always add up but who cares, it’s BIG FUN. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranOct 13, 2016
The Accountant is a nifty piece of genre entertainment, its wacky edge and genial tone despite that body count coming as something of a pleasant surprise in a year rife with lumbering, over-amped blockbusters. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliOct 14, 2016
The thing that makes The Accountant unique, however, and elevates it above the garden variety action-thriller, is that the title character’s “superpowers” result from his autism. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Brad WheelerOct 13, 2016
The victory of The Accountant is in the tone. The title character isn’t presented as a superfreak – this isn’t "Rain Man," in which autistic gifts are presented as powers for parlour tricks – but as a prototype and a beautiful mutant, maybe even a superhero. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerTirdad DerakhshaniOct 13, 2016
On the whole, it's a mess of action clichés built on top of a shaky premise that's so out-of-this-world that it'll either enrage you - or make you laugh. I chose the latter. I'm not ashamed to admit that I had a lot of fun at this movie. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanOct 12, 2016
One of the opening scenes of The Accountant consists of puzzle pieces being dumped on a table, and that’s a fine metaphor for the film.... A few pieces can’t be made to fit, and two of those are big ones. (More on that in a minute.) But the rest of the story has been well-constructed, and the picture it gradually reveals keeps you guessing up to the final scene. Read full review
75
USA TodayBrian TruittOct 12, 2016
Ben Affleck brings needed nuance to old-fashioned brains and brawn as an action hero with high-functioning autism in The Accountant. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJohn AndersonOct 13, 2016
An effective and even affecting pop thriller. Read full review
70
VarietyPeter DebrugeOct 12, 2016
The Accountant is nothing if not a puzzle — not so much a jigsaw as a three-dimensional brain teaser that gets deeper and stranger with each new revelation. Read full review
70
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeOct 12, 2016
Audiences willing to just go with the movie’s outlandish lead character will find laughs and thrills along the way, as well as that rarest of studio properties: a tentpole that actually leaves you enthusiastic about the prospect of a sequel. Read full review
67
The Film StageDan MeccaOct 13, 2016
For every moment that feels overly self-serious, there are two that promise this thing’s some kind of pop-schlock classic. Read full review
63
Washington PostAnn HornadayOct 13, 2016
True to the profession it sets out to glamorize, The Accountant takes advantage of its share of creative loopholes — and manages to break even in the process. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy BurrOct 13, 2016
The Accountant keeps you hanging on all the way to the looney-toon ending, well past the point where your higher brain functions have called it a night. It’s not a good movie but it’s not a bad way to kill a few hours. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinOct 14, 2016
The action-thriller The Accountant is laughable, but when you’re not laughing at it, you’re laughing with it. It’s enjoyable enough. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsAllen SalkinOct 12, 2016
The problem is that endings matter. I was thrilled at watching more than an hour of Ben Affleck playing Christian Wolff as a socially awkward, arithmetically gifted, martial arts expert sharpshooter. But then the plot devolved into nonsense for the final stretch, leaving me wanting to garnish the filmmakers' wages. Read full review
60
ScreenCrushMatt SingerOct 12, 2016
The world-building is engrossing. The premise is refreshingly peculiar. The action grabs your attention. As long as the movie keeps a lid on what precisely is going on, it works. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyOct 12, 2016
All the more frustrating because of its conceptual freshness and Ben Affleck's sly turn in the title role, this sleek action thriller ends up delivering standard shoot-'em-up goods after initially suggesting it might provide something rather different. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattOct 12, 2016
The whole thing’s ludicrous, down to the last loony twist, but it’s also a lot more fun than Batman v Superman. Read full review
50
We Got This CoveredMatt DonatoOct 13, 2016
The Accountant is so many baffling things, most (but not all) of which can not be described in a positive manner. Read full review
50
New York PostSara StewartOct 13, 2016
Thrillers can be a valid Hollywood escape, but this one made me as uncomfortable as its hero is with small talk. Read full review
50
TimeStephanie ZacharekOct 13, 2016
The Accountant would be more entertaining if it just acknowledged its own nerdy outlandishness. Still, it’s something to watch Affleck play a man who has trouble expressing his feelings and struggles to read those of others. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsOct 13, 2016
I admit I would've had a hard time getting through it without the help of Simmons and Addai-Robinson, over there in the B plot. The character at the center of the story is treated with respect and admiration, but in dramatic terms he's about as real-world plausible as Batman. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyOct 13, 2016
It goes very far south, with two plot reveals that are among the most ludicrous that I’ve experienced in quite some time. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleOct 13, 2016
Much of it is enjoyable and has the aura of a superior action film, but it collapses into a laughable wreck and ultimately reveals itself as a mild waste of two hours. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzOct 13, 2016
The script, by Bill Dubuque, goes sideways in a hurry. Characters do inexplicable things for no reason other than advancing the plot, and sometimes not even that. There is a jaw-dropping coincidence that is as ridiculous as it is obvious. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Oct 12, 2016
At various times, The Accountant aspires to a slick corporate-espionage thriller, a no-nonsense action flick, a tortured family drama, a quirky romantic comedy, and an earnest PSA about autism. At nearly all times, it’s preposterous. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenOct 12, 2016
Conceptually, The Accountant kills it, but in terms of execution, The Accountant doesn’t add up. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezOct 12, 2016
For all its respectable airs, The Accountant mostly induces shrugs. Sometimes, B-movies fare better when they settle for being their lowbrow selves. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreOct 12, 2016
Director Gavin O’Connor (“Warrior”) is at a loss in trying to shape this into a lean, chilly action picture. The fights and shootouts work, some of the accounting stuff is funny, but the rest is a muddle. Read full review
50
Screen DailyTim GriersonOct 12, 2016
The latest from director Gavin O’Connor (Warrior) is part character study and part airport-novel nonsense, and the film’s utter chutzpah gives the proceedings an agreeable kick. But The Accountant can’t balance its B-movie instincts with its more artistic aspirations, ultimately hamstringing a potentially juicy, escapist shoot-‘em-up. Read full review
50
The PlaylistNick SchagerOct 12, 2016
Seemingly primed to deliver daffy thrills, The Accountant instead goes about its noble-killer business with all the excitement of an IRS audit. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineJake ColeOct 12, 2016
The film juggles a “follow the money” procedural with corporate espionage thriller, producing two competing tones that never reconcile into one fluid narrative. Read full review
42
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerOct 14, 2016
Director Gavin O’Connor and screenwriter Bill Dubuque have made a textbook example of the "what were they thinking?" movie genre. Judging from the befogged look on some of the actors’ faces, they must have been wondering the same thing. Read full review
42
IndieWireDavid EhrlichOct 12, 2016
While “Jason Bourne meets Temple Grandin” might sound like an interesting idea for a studio write-off, “James Bond meets Michael Clayton meets Rain Man meets all of their friends and enemies” is a dull movie that’s too full of distractions to pay out any dividends. Read full review
40
The TelegraphRobbie CollinNov 3, 2016
The one thing there’s no accounting for in The Accountant is taste. Read full review
40
EmpireKeith StuartOct 12, 2016
Character motivations are glossed over, explanatory scenes are jammed in haphazardly, and the finale relies on a tonally bizarre combination of schmaltz, coincidence and violence that seems to betray the arc of the whole movie. Read full review
40
The GuardianNoah BerlatskyOct 12, 2016
The Accountant uses a cliched and misleading presentation of disability to produce a cliched Hollywood action lead in a cliched action plot, and then babbles cliches about the importance of embracing difference. Despite its protestations to the contrary, the only thing that sets The Accountant apart from its peers is its irritating, clueless hypocrisy, and its lousy title. Read full review
33
ConsequenceMichael RoffmanOct 12, 2016
The Accountant tallies up its numbers for an achingly long 50 minutes before it starts to finally piece together any semblance of a structured plot. Read full review
30
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlOct 13, 2016
Here's two hours of grimly serious puzzle-box dramatics and beat-downs starring Ben Affleck as an Affleck-shaped void. Read full review
30
The New York TimesStephen HoldenOct 13, 2016
The movie, directed by Gavin O’Connor (“Tumbleweeds”), makes little sense. The screenplay, by Bill Dubuque, is so determined to hide its cards that when the big reveal finally arrives, it feels as underwhelming as it is preposterous. Read full review
25
Rolling StonePeter TraversOct 13, 2016
Preposterous can be defined in many, many ways. But for now, let's use the plot details of The Accountant as Exhibit A. Read full review
25
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallOct 12, 2016
Ben Affleck is Agent Double-OCD in The Accountant, an effortlessly dumb thriller barely more entertaining than an audit. Read full review
20
Time OutJoshua RothkopfOct 12, 2016
The Dark Knight director has had a mortifying effect on movies. In this case, it’s almost as if Affleck’s somber plunge into the calamitous, Nolan-produced "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice" has followed him into other projects, like a heavy cologne. Avoid this one like the stink it is. Read full review
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