The Accountant 2 Review

The Accountant opens in theaters on Friday, April 25. This review is based on a screening at the 2025 SXSW Film and TV Festival.

You can tell from the way the title is stylized on screen – as a mathematical exponent, like Alien³ – that The Accountant 2 has removed the self-seriousness from its predecessor’s otherwise delightful formula. Gavin O’Connor’s sequel is a blast, building on the story and relationships of 2016’s The Accountant to reveal a touching, hilarious portrait of fraught brotherhood within a charged and politically relevant plot. All the while, it leans full-tilt into a goofy setup that’s executed with utter confidence: Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck), a.k.a. The Accountant, is a savant number-cruncher for the mob and part-time vigilante gunman whose autism is gently approached and realistically performed, but framed as though it were a superpower.

There’s less bean counting in The Accountant 2, but far more blood and bullets, starting with an opening scene in which former Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (or FinCEN) director Raymond King (J.K. Simmons) is gunned down while working a case in secret. Once the Commissioner Gordon to The Accountant’s Batman – fitting, as Affleck and Simmons have since played that dynamic in the DC Extended Universe – King has only been following leads in which he’s emotionally invested. His death leaves behind an intricate puzzle for Wolff to solve, alongside King’s Treasury Department successor, the returning Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson). The case that got King killed opens up a web of human trafficking between Central America and the southern U.S., exposing the ways in which undocumented immigrants who have little legal recourse are brutally exploited. Where the first film was mostly unsentimental about its central plot (which revolved around a robotics firm), The Accountant 2 conjures immense sympathy with its topical melodrama and the mystery of King’s death.

But as somber as this story seems at first blush, it’s also peppered with wildly amusing moments of character. That begins with Wolff’s re-introduction, during which he games a speed-dating algorithm by sprucing up his profile in all the right ways, only to botch every face-to-face encounter. It’s the perfect kind of silly, placing Wolff’s isolation front and center while setting up his impending reunion with his estranged brother, fellow contract killer Braxton (Jon Bernthal), whose help he seeks to solve King’s murder. Also assisting Wolff is his returning, remote, technologically savvy assistant Justine (Allison Robertson, replacing Allison Wright from the first film), a nonverbal resident of a mansion-like academy for young autistic students. She has her own legion of hackers-in-training this time, à la Professor X – who she even quotes at one point. Like I said: perfectly silly, even if the portrayal of neurodivergence constantly threatens to tip (but never fully does) into offensiveness.

A mysterious, scarily capable assassin known only as Anaïs (Daniella Pineda) seems to somehow be involved in King’s case, but The Accountant 2’s lopsided structure ensures that she disappears for lengthy periods. However, the layers it reveals to her seemingly single-minded character do retroactively justify those absences. After all, this is the kind of movie where no matter how many conveniences cause its jigsaw pieces to click into place, the result is no less entertaining.

Just like The Accountant, whose heightened tone and reliance on tried-and-true storytelling devices – enormous coincidences, long-lost family connections – wouldn’t feel out of place in a Bollywood movie,the sequel similarly runs a crowd-pleasing gamut. The action is capable and clear. The plot, while complicated in structure, takes the characters to interesting places (both geographically and emotionally). The comedy is fine-tuned and, most importantly, entirely character-and-performance based.

Things simmer on a medium flame until Bernthal shows up and instantly sets the screen ablaze. An actor long compared to Robert De Niro, he finally gets his own “You talkin’ to me?” moment in The Accountant 2, which paves the path for Braxton’s surprising vulnerability – he’s a lost, lonely soul who just wants his older brother’s friendship. Affleck, despite a voice that seems more influenced by The Simpsons’ Comic Book Guy this time around, returns seamlessly to the role of Wolff. Having retreated almost entirely to the solitude of his tricked-out Airstream trailer, he seems to want to connect as well, but his misreadings of his brother’s body language and intentions make this difficult. Braxton is frank and playful, and Bernthal imbues the character’s body language with an easy-going fluidity, which makes for an enchantingly funny contrast with Wolff’s unwavering stiffness.

The clashes between the brothers are the movie’s heart and soul – this especially comes to light during their downtime from vigilantism (and from Medina’s disapproval of their methods). One scene in an LA square dancing bar is a particular delight, between Braxton’s eagerness to throw hands, and Wolff’s wonderfully roundabout methods of flirtation, which involves him calculating his way onto the dance floor. It’s a sequence that demonstrates O’Connor understanding that movement and character are intrinsically bound, and in action cinema, you can’t really have one without building up the other.

The Accountant 2 is a surprisingly sentimental sequel, which keeps even the most scattered elements of its plot firmly glued together. It’s filled with the kind of unapologetic cheese that Hollywood action has long since replaced with irreverent, quippy snark, ensuring that its humor and drama go hand-in-hand at every turn, resulting in one of the year’s most well-rounded studio pictures.