Is “The Accountant” (2016) the first aspie supremacist film? It is an origin story for a vigilante known as Christian “Chris” Wolff (Ben Affleck), an autistic accountant who has a humble storefront on a Illinois block, but it is just a cover for his international black money, de-cooking-the-books accounting business with a shady clientele. After a stack of surveillance photos show him next to notable shady figures, Treasury Department Ray King (J.K. Simmons) blackmails Analyst Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson) into discovering his identity. Feeling their breath down his neck and at the advice of his mysterious partner (Alison Wright), he takes a legit job at Living Robotics to discover a leak of money before the corporation goes public. When the chief suspect ends up dead, Christian realizes that it put him and Living Robotics’ accountant, Dana Cummings (Anna Kendrick), in the crosshairs of the real culprit, who hired Brax (Jon Bernthal) and his private security force to eliminate them. Fortunately for Dana, Christian has a particular set of skills….

“The Accountant” is like McDonalds. It is not good or good for you, but you still eat it up. The story starts in 1989, and there are lots of flashbacks from his childhood to adulthood to reveal how Chris became the mild-mannered man of action that he is today. His parents disagreed about his treatment. Mom (Mary Kraft) wanted to leave him at Harbor Neuroscience to have a safe environment that would cater to his sensory needs, but Dad (Robert C. Treveiler) is a military man. While his methods are the equivalent of physical and psychological child abuse, they are milder and more sympathetic than the alleged Applied Behavior Analysis techniques that The Judge Rotenberg Center used (the legal use of electric shock therapy on the disabled). He lets Chris keep his stimming techniques, hugs him and cautions him about giving people too much of the benefit of the doubt to fit in: “They don’t like you. They don’t dislike you. They’re afraid of you. Sooner or later, different scares people.” It is the kind of movie that valorizes treatment of children that is dangerous and inexcusable, but because the bar is in hell, the idea of a badass underdog fighting back is too much fun to resist. “The X-Men” groomed us all into being pro child soldiers. Dad did not have the benefit of seeing “Boy Kills World” (2023).

Also “The Accountant” leans into Affleck’s natural talent. He is a great director, but a stiff wooden actor with a flat affect on a good day when he is not in a comedy. The man is fine in the face and built for action, but no thespian. As Chris, he is as fearsome in the boardroom as he is in a brawl, and the movie is divided in that fashion, but once the bullets and fists start flying, put away your dry erase markers. He played Bruce Wayne/Batman in two films before playing this action hero, but Chris is more of a mashup of Clark Kent meets Batman. He even owns an early comic issue of Superman and adopts an adorable farming couple. Also do you see what his name signifies: Christian or Chris as a Christ figure who just exists to protect people, but instead of wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove, he is a lamb in wolf’s clothing. While he is one in a long line of vigilantes who do not exhibit emotional reactions, he may be one of the few who has a valid reason for his behavior. It is the closest that Affleck will ever come to touching the hem of Russell Crowe’s garment—in terms of writing and seeing connections, not the same cause as the protagonist in “A Beautiful Mind” (2001).

“The Accountant” includes a few women who come closest to understanding Chris. Dana Cummings (Anna Kendrick) is the work wife who initially discovers the accounting discrepancy that Chris confirms. She provides comic relief because she is an audience surrogate who spends the most time with Chris and witnesses him transform. Her reaction to noticing his mannerism and entering his world is relatable, and she is not like the people his father feared. A lesser action film would throw the autistic premise to the side and turn her into a love interest. Medina is on his tail, proves herself to be a keen opponent and someone who can relate to drawing outside of the lines to protect people. Chris’ mysterious partner seems to have a crush on him but is the only person who has his back and understands the risks that he takes. She is his Charlie if there was only one angel and is what it would be like if the autistic kids in either the 2012 nonfiction book or 2018 documentary “Far From The Tree” suddenly became fiction characters in a movie.

You can’t take Bernthal anywhere without him stealing the scene, and “The Accountant” is no exception. The film sets him up as the only person who may be capable of defeating Chris, but not his army of men who go down like a house of cards. As Brax, it is the closest that Bernthal gets to cleaning up and get his hair done did, but he still gets one scene where he barks in someone’s face, so the world still exists. Ben Barnes, watch your back! He is coming for your job. Brax is an amoral guy who can turn to whichever side is paying the most. One minute, he is roughing up a guy for causing wonton job loss then he is sending his men out to menace and kill defenseless innocents. When Bobby (Alex Huynh), one of his snipers, gives him lip, he remains unbothered, and there is no retribution for disrespect. If you watch a lot of movies, you will see his plot twist coming a mile away, and his employer’s reaction is hilarious. He is not the only character with a back story that rivals the lead’s. Director King seems like a standard Simmons’ role as the barking boss. His story is an unexpected redemption arc, which was a neat breather before the final showdown.

“The Accountant” fight scenes vary in quality. They are all good, but hand to hand combat is always more interesting than a gunfight, especially if they are on a moving vehicle. The last battle feels kind of weak because there are so many people, and it goes by quickly. The best scene without a fight is seeing all the security measures at Chris’ place, especially in the living room. The firearms are so large, it seems unrealistic and laughable, but they are probably real. A lot of this firepower is the size of a big man’s torso.

Writer Bill Dubuque, who wrote “The Judge” (2014), makes a pretty solid story that stands up under scrutiny. He took inspiration from the real-life Ravenite social club, the Gambino mob boss John Gotti’s headquarters, to kick off the story. Mob stories tend to swallow up everything in its presence, but this film lets corporate misdeeds, which sound less sexy, but are riveting, take center stage. Toggling between Illinois and DC takes a standard game of cat and mouse and subverts the formula.  Director Gavin O’Connor does his job, which is more than anyone can say about “A Working Man” (2025), a film edited and directed for radio. He crops fight scenes in the end more than my personal taste would prefer, but now that there is a new low, I’m going to pull punches and turn to gratitude.

I only watched “The Accountant” to be prepared for “The Accountant 2” (2025). I live in Massachusetts so if I’m going to cover movies here, Affleck becomes required viewing. It was a genuine surprise to enjoy it, but there is something depressing about a film that gets more right about autism than the Secretary of Health and Human Services! In another world, I’d spend time delineating everything that it got wrong, but if it surpasses federal officials’ knowledge, I’m going to let it go. It is all about perspective.