The Accountant 2 Makes the Most of Ben Affleck and Jon Bernthal’s Brotherly Love: Review

In a different, more sane period of time, this would be a review of The Accountant 2 which didn’t have to mention the Trump administration. This, however, is the spring of 2025, and on the eve of the new action movie’s release, it must be mentioned that there is one person who needs to go see Ben Affleck and Jon Bernthal kick a whole bunch of ass on screen: Current Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Kennedy, in a press conference on April 16th, declared to the world that kids with autism “will never pay taxes. They’ll never hold a job. They’ll never play baseball. They’ll never write a poem. They’ll never go out on a date.” Aside from being hugely insulting to the many, many people in this world who grow up neurodivergent and definitely do those things, it’s a statement I’d like to think Kennedy might not have made if he had seen the first Accountant film, not to mention the second.

2016’s The Accountant introduced the titular Accountant, Affleck’s Christian Wolff (what a character name), an autistic man who happens to be both a brilliant accountant and an extremely deadly badass — skills that come in handy if you’re cooking the books for the mob. The first movie is equal amounts Affleck kicking butt and untangling crime using math, a trend that gets amplified in the sequel, along with a lot more of Bernthal as Chris’s younger brother Braxton, an agent of chaos in direct contrast to Chris’s more reserved nature.

Knowing that Affleck is a neurotypical actor playing an autistic character of course impacts our perception of his performance, since, as The Center for Disability Rights writes, “there is no way to accurately play an autistic character if you are not autistic yourself.” It’s why advocates push for more on-screen representation of underrepresented groups — created by and featuring people from those groups.

In The Accountant 2, there were moments where it felt like Affleck was bringing some real nuance to his portrayal… and then there were moments where it felt like Affleck’s acting coach was a used VHS of Rain Man. It doesn’t help that the premise leans hard on the “autism as superpower” trope in explaining Chris’s talents.

Leaving aside the topic of autism, The Accountant 2 features some wild tone issues: When it’s functioning as an action comedy, it’s pretty fun, but director Gavin O’Connor pushes the narrative into some pretty dark places, climaxing with a sequence so that’s so over-the-top grim it almost becomes hilarious. (Without getting too much into spoilers, a school bus full of children is involved.)

The supporting cast includes the returning J.K. Simmons as the now-retired Raymond King, and Cynthia Addai-Robinson as a Treasury agent who pulls Chris back into action to help with a mystery she’s trying to solve. There’s also a new character, a mysterious assassin known only as Anaïs (Daniella Pineda), whose identity is key to the investigation. All of them perform admirably, though this movie is ultimately a two-hander.

For the best choice The Accountant 2 makes is giving Jon Bernthal more screentime — after all, Bernthal is electric, and more of him is always better. Watching Bernthal bloom since his mid-2010s breakout in projects like The Walking Dead, The Wolf of Wall Street, and The Punisher has been such a treat: There’s a good five minutes of The Accountant 2 in which he does nothing but pace around a hotel room talking to himself, and it is fucking cinema.

Partnering up Affleck and Bernthal’s characters brings out the best in both, and watching this unconventional brother act take on (and take out) the bad guys is often deeply satisfying. Even just watching them share a beer on a trailer rooftop or get into a good-natured barfight is a good time. Because sometimes the best way to understand someone is through their relationships with others, and it’s watching Chris interact with Braxton where Affleck is at his most believable.

While The Accountant 2 isn’t a wholly successful movie, or a wholly successful depiction of autism, it does at least spotlight an autistic character who lives a full life and seems content — who does, in fact, date and do his taxes. It’s not a triumph of representation, but it’s got a better understanding of the subject matter than some government officials do. That’s not saying much. But, hey, that’s 2025 for you.

The Accountant 2 premieres in theaters on Friday, April 25th. Check out the trailer below.