Movie Info
Starring: Ben Affleck, Anna Kendrick, J. K. Simmons, Jon Bernthal, Jeffrey Tambor, John Lithgow
Story: Action thriller directed by Gavin O’Connor. The Accountant (2016) centers on Christian Wolff (Ben Affleck), a brilliant but socially awkward math savant who secretly works for dangerous criminals. When authorities close in, he takes on a legitimate client, accounting clerk (Anna Kendrick), and uncovers a massive financial discrepancy. As the truth comes out, the stakes, and the body count, quickly rise.
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Top The Accountant Quotes
Neurologist: I’m not a fan of labels, ma’am. Your son is a remarkable young man.
Young Chris’s Mother: When it’s somebody else’s child, it’s a challenge. When it’s yours, it’s a problem.
Young Chris’s Mother: My husband’s in the Army, which means we all are.
Young Chris’s Father: The world is not a sensory-friendly place, and that’s where he needs to learn to live. Not in here. Doctor, in your opinion, can our son lead a normal life?
Neurologist: Define normal.
Christian Wolff: Solomon Grundy. Born on a Monday. Christened on Tuesday. Married on Wednesday. Sick on Thursday. Worse on Friday. Died on Saturday. Buried on Sunday. That was the end of Solomon Grundy.
Ray King: There was a sighting in Tehran. All describing the same man. An accountant. Our accountant. The accountant.
Marybeth Medina: The accountant, like a CPA accountant? Okay.
Christian Wolff: Everyone’s hiding something. At least there’s honor among thieves.
Woman’s Voice: There’s honor among Illinois electronics manufacturers.
Brax: When you interrupt somebody like that, it makes them feel that you’re just not interested in what they have to say. Or maybe you just think what you have to say is more important than what I have to say. Is that what you think?
Christian Wolff: I like Dogs Playing Poker. Because dogs would never bet on things, and so, it’s incongruous. I like incongruity.
Dana Cummings: Yeah, Dogs Playing Poker is nice. It’s just sort of a, just different.
Dana Cummings: So, I studied accounting at the University of Chicago, where fun goes to die.
Christian Wolff: Why?
Dana Cummings: Why what?
Christian Wolff: Why does fun go to die at the University of Chicago?
Dana Cummings: Oh, no. It’s just an expression. I’m joking.
Young Chris’s Father: Aggression, correctly channeled, overcomes a lot of flaws. Tapping into that aggression requires peeling back several layers of yourself.
Brax: Since when are accountants difficult to ventilate? Dead? Christ, What did he do, hit him over the head with an adding machine? Oh, God. Alright, just put me in touch with the client. I’ll handle this accountant myself.
Dana Cummings: Running isn’t an option for me. I can’t just walk out on my life! We have to go to the police. That’s what normal, taxpaying people do!
Christian Wolff: [as Dana sees the weapons and money in his trailer] What are you doing in here?
Dana Cummings: Who are you?
Dana Cummings: This is where you live?
Christian Wolff: No, I don’t live here. This is a storage unit. That would be weird.
Dana Cummings: That’s what would be weird?
Dana Cummings: Why would your clients follow you? You’re an accountant! How do you know what to do here? Why are you prepared for this?
Dana Cummings: Sarcasm? Is that sarcasm?
Christian Wolff: No, that’s not sarcasm. I don’t use sarcasm. It’s irritation.
Christian Wolff: [to Dana] Everything in the world that is important to me is in this trailer. And right now, changing my routine for you is jeopardizing that.
Christian Wolff: My father was an officer in the Army. Psychological Operations. He was concerned that I might be taken advantage of somehow, so he arranged for me to train with a number of specialists throughout my childhood. We lived in thirty-four homes in seventeen years.
Dana Cummings: You moved thirty-four times? God, that’s extraordinary. No, I’m sure it must have been difficult.
Christian Wolff: I have a high-functioning form of autism, which means I have an extremely narrow focus and a hard time abandoning tasks once I’ve taken them up. I have difficulty socializing with other people, even though I want to.
Dana Cummings: It wasn’t about the dress. I just wanted to walk into the gym and have everybody say, “Wow!” I was trying to belong. I was trying to connect. I think no matter how different we are, we’re all trying to do the same thing.
Justine: [referring to Dana] Risking your life for a girl you’ve known a week. Why?
Justine: [as Chris gives no response] Heavy sigh. What’s the plan?
Christian Wolff: Find the person who wants to kill her.
Justine: And?
Christian Wolff: Shoot them in the head.
Young Chris’s Father: Life is a series of choices, none of which are new. The oldest is choosing to be a victim, or choosing not to. Second oldest, loyalty. Family first, good times or bad.
Young Chris’s Father: [to young Chris] You think if you don’t fight back then maybe they’ll like you, stop picking on you and calling you a freak? Well here’s what it is. They don’t like you, they don’t dislike you. They’re afraid of you. You’re different.
Young Chris’s Father: [to young Chris] Sooner or later, different” scares people. Victim or not? Make a decision.
Ray King: I was old ten years ago.
Christian Wolff: Were you a good dad, Raymond King?
Ray King: Yeah. I’ve been a good dad. I’m a lousy agent, and I’ve been a weak man, but that I didn’t screw up. That I got right.
Marybeth Medina: He aids and abets drug cartels, money launderers. He’s a f***ing killer.
Ray King: Believe me, I wrestled with the same decision. But when I got that first call, I realized something. I’d spent my whole life only recognizing my lucky breaks after they were gone.
Brax: Did you ever see a match-grade round traveling three thousand feet per second go through a window?
Brax: [as he shoots one of the guards] Nobody does.
Brax: I’ve been looking for you for ten years, and you’re going to come at me like we just saw each other yesterday? That’s what you’re going to do? What did I think? What did I think, that you were going to be happy to see me, I guess.
Christian Wolff: I am happy. I need to finish. You should go.
Brax: [as they’re fighting] It’s your fault that Pop’s dead! Do you hear me? It’s your fault!
Christian Wolff: I’m sorry, Braxton.
Brax: You’re sorry? Sorry doesn’t cut it, you weird f***! You don’t give a s**t about me? You don’t give a s**t about me? How about now? How about now? Are you going to fight! Fight!
Brax: If you had to see her, if that was something that you had to do, you call me. I’m your brother. I’ve always had your back. You don’t call him, you call me. Did you even wonder where I was?
Christian Wolff: I knew where you were. I just wanted you to be safe, some of my clients are quite dangerous.
Brax: I’m kind of considered fairly dangerous myself.
Christian Wolff: Well, you’ve made improvements.
Brax: You and me here, what are the odds?
Christian Wolff: Well statistically speaking…
Brax: Christ, man! It’s rhetorical. I mean, really?
Christian Wolff: I was just saying.
Lamar Blackburn: I’m fond of Dana. But I restore lives, not Dana! Me! Men, women, children, I give them hope. Make them whole. Do you even know what that’s like?
Christian Wolff: Yes, I do.
Brax: [to Chris] I missed you. “Missed you too, Braxton. Missed you too, because I love you. You’re my brother.”
Christian Wolff: Maybe I could see you in a week?
Brax: You name the place, I’ll be there. How will I find you?
Christian Wolff: You won’t. I’ll find you.
Neurologist: What if we’re wrong? What if we’ve been using the wrong tests to quantify intelligence in children with autism? Your son’s not less-than. He’s different. Now, your expectations for your son may change over time. They might include marriage, children, self-sufficiency, and they might not. But I guarantee you, if we let the world set expectations for our children, they’ll start low, and they’ll stay there.
Neurologist: Maybe your son’s capable of much more than we know. And maybe, just maybe, he doesn’t understand how to tell us. Or we haven’t yet learned how to listen.
Favorite Dialogue…
Father: Life is a series of choices, non of which are new. The oldest, must choose to be a victim, or choose not to. Second oldest, loyalty; family first, good times or bad.
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Father: *Bullies show up.* Bonjour Fellas
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Christian: They’re only glasses!
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Father: You think if you don’t fight back then maybe they’ll like you, stop picking on you and calling you freak. Here’s what it is. They don’t like you, they don’t dislike you, they’re afraid of you, you’re different. Sooner or later different scares people… Victim or not, make a decision.
A gifted math whiz lacking in social demeanor learns survival skills to protect being different. As an accountant he works for the lawless while undercover for the lawful with his own brand of payback. He does not believe in in-completes.
Buy some treats at the concession stand.
This movie is way too good. Just when you are expecting something like a genius shooting all over the movie, it is not going to happen.
The proportion of every element is nice. Recent movie had add too much love element into it to attract audience attention. This movie give just a small bit, and that is what happen to most autism people. And the movie does not take out the genius part at the end of the movie. Which most show do. He is still talented and when the spray the sniper shooting, you can literally feel fear if you are the people in the house. That is consistency.
Constant flash back to his childhood throughout the movie to give us more clue about himself. Slowly unlock the mystery is a great way to deliver story. The normal movie which shows the police want to catch the people who are doing good things in bad way, but this movie give a huge twist in this part.
Then the awareness of the autism/mental illness itself. It is the expectation and how much we want to lock someone into our standard of normal. When they can be, special. Which people do not like special or different. Even the small details of how a highly functional autism people would look like is deeply present in it.
The entire of the movie, I did not feel a second is wasting. Always makes me wonder what is going to happen next. Perfect story telling, perfect character development and best movie I had watched in 2016.