The Accountant review: Ben Affleck, autistic superhero? No thanks

Parents with autistic children will often complain that, thanks to films such as Rain Man, strangers expect their offspring to have superpowers.

This idiotic (though intermittently entertaining) thriller from the reliable Gavin O’Connor pushes this cheap simplification to the limits. Ben Affleck, doing his constipated act again, plays an accountant diagnosed with a severe version of the condition as a child. He grows up to be a whizz with figures.

There’s more. He grows up to fight better than Jason Bourne and shoot more accurately than Lee Harvey Oswald. Does the violence trouble him? Not much. Mid-grade psychopathy appears to be yet another symptom of movie autism. If you are not yet sufficiently annoyed, then consider how his brutal dad – a military man – seems to suppress some of the boy’s phobias by beating the tar out of him. This can’t be right.

Though significantly superior to that in the recent Jack Reacher flick, the plot is too dull to be worth unravelling. Christian Wolff (Affleck) finds work as an accountant for all kinds of unsavoury individuals. He also toils for more wholesome elements. While poking into the books of John Lithgow’s robotics firm, he uncovers some significant irregularities.

This causes men in black suits to shoot at him and Anna Kendrick to become a fellow fugitive. Revelations are piled on revelations, before – suggesting the scriptwriters have given up on the job – a major character puts up his feet and, over a 10-minute monologue, talks us through all the remaining mysteries. They may as well have handed out photocopied notes.

The action sequences are perfectly well rendered and supporting turns from pros Lithgow and JK Simmons freshen up the edges. But the dubious composition of Affleck’s character leaves a foul taste in the mouth. It’s as if Hollywood has belatedly decided to diagnose one of its key character tropes.

Wolff cannot socialise effectively. He is without humour. He is secretly a terrifyingly efficient nocturnal avenger. In other words, he’s Bruce Wayne. Maybe we can call it Batman Syndrome in future.