Hanime on Autism Review: The Accountant

Greetings, fabulous people of the Internet!  Hanime on Anime here, and welcome to the final review for Hanime on Autism 2020!  And while today’s film might not ring a bell for some of you, I think it deserves to be talked about, especially for it’s portrayal of high functioning autism in it’s main character...maybe not as an action thriller, but definitely for it’s portrayal of autism.  Well, let’s not wait and get started with today’s review on The Accountant!

On the surface, Christian Wolff is modest accountant with high functioning autism.  But what few know, is that Chris is a military trained assassin who has worked for some of the notorious people in the world.  When hired to audit a bio-medical company’s finances along with the company’s accountant-played by Anna Kendrick- the two discover a case of fraud within the company.  Soon, the two find themselves in a high stakes chase as they’re tracked down by other assassins hired to kill them in order to cover up the fraud.  Not only that, Chris is also being tracked by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network due to a personal connection between him and it’s director.  It’s an interesting film to say the least, but how does it stack up with it’s autistic lead?  Well, stick around and find out.

You know, it’s strange.  While this film is serviceable as an all around film, The Accountant probably has one of the most unique portrayals of autism I’ve ever seen.  And I kind of like it for that.    Christian Wolff is not the best portrayal of autism in film, but he is a fun one.  The whole idea of having an autistic assassin is unique and something I haven’t seen.  The irony, though, is that many critics have found the idea of someone on the spectrum-with their need for logic and calculation-being the perfect hitman as offensive.  And having every autistic character be a scientist, tech wizard, or savant isn’t?  Yeah that’s right, Chris, learn a thing or two from the golden standards here!  Do these critics not know that people on the spectrum can be soldiers, too?  As someone on the spectrum I actually thought the autistic assassin approach was something different and fun.  Also, this is a career that, I would imagine, would be a nightmare for someone on the spectrum.  Imagine the amount of stress you’d have to deal with if you botched a job and didn’t have a backup plan.  That’s a meltdown waiting to happen.  So despite what some critics have said about the film, Chris himself is a neat interpretation of what autism could look like.

Another part to the film that I loved, besides Chris as an autistic character, was how the show treats autism as a whole.  Despite Chris not being one of the best autistic character in film, I do feel like autism is treated positively in many regards.  One of those regards, and probably the more obvious, is the film’s underlying message that people on the spectrum can do just about anything.  As I said before, I would imagine being an assassin would be a very tense and stressful job, but someone with autism can do it.  Granted, much of this stems from what we know about Chris’s past, but I don’t think critics should have gotten so uptight about an autistic man with military training.  Add to the fact too that most of his funds go towards this special school for children with autism that he himself went to as a boy.  Now how cool is that?  A chance where we someone on the spectrum can do just about anything, even give back to those affected by or help those with autism.  Another great scene too involves Chris and Anna Kendrick’s character, Dana, as they’re on the run.  While hiding out in a nice hotel, Dana attempts to start a conversation with Chris.  It doesn’t go well at first, with Chris at one point saying he can’t because of his autism.  But then out of the blue, Dana tells this story about her trying to find money to buy a prom dress.  Long story short, she’s able to buy the dress she wants but only wears it once, which was the exact opposite reason for buying the dress in the first place.  As irrelevant as this story may seem, there a great silver lining to it.  What this scene actually does is it shows the audience that someone with autism can in fact have a conversation and be able to relate and understand what’s being said.  Then there was there was the final scene of the movie, which was probably my favorite part of the film and the crème de la crème of the film’s positive view on autism.  Throughout the film, Chris has an informant that he speaks to frequently for assignments and on ways to get through tough jobs.  We never learn the true identity of the person until the film’s final moments.  In this scene, at the school where Chris donates most of his earnings, a little boy walks around the school till he comes to a room.  There he meets a low functioning autistic woman named Justine.  As the boy’s parents tour the school, the boy stays with Justine, who then shows him a desktop computer where she plays back the audio of Chris’s informant.  That’s right!  A low functioning autistic woman has been the one not only helping Chris find jobs, but to also hide him and move him when things go south.  It’s as if Carly Flieschmann became M from the Bond movies.  If the message at this point wasn’t clear, people with autism can do just about anything.  And that pretty much seems to be the whole theme of this movie.  Even though there in fact problems with this movie, which we’ll talk about in a minute, given the constant stereotypical portrayal we get of autistic characters in TV and film, I welcomed this film’s view on it.

So while the film has a mostly positive and unique portrayal of people on the spectrum, as a film it could’ve been a lot better.  There’s a lot of plot holes especially when it comes to Chris’s backstory that really shouldn’t be there.  For example, at what point did Chris’s brother become a mercenary and have some kind of grudge against him?  Yeah, at some point he became a mercenary, later hired by the bio-medical company committing fraud, and for some reason has a grudge against Christian.  I mean, there’s this whole thing about there mother’s funeral and all, but nothing is ever mentioned about him by that point, so whose to say he wasn’t involved then?  Also, we get a few scenes of Chris routinely over stimulating himself, and yet nowhere do we see how or why this came to be, though we get this awesome scene where he does target practice at a client’s house and draws emotes on pumpkins (that’s one way an autism advocate could stick it to AS).  Also, I took issue with the actor who played Christian as a kid in all of the flashbacks.  Don’t get me wrong, he’s not a bad actor.  It’s just, I think this was his first time playing a character with autism.  So in moments when he’s supposed to be an autistic child, it feels like an act.  In fact in two scenes where he has a meltdown, it feels staged.  Like the director said, “Ok, kid.  You play a boy with autism, and you just lost a piece to this jigsaw puzzle that you’re finishing and you have a meltdown.  And action!”  Now I know that autism is different in everyone- trust me, I know-, but this performance felt like it wasn’t genuine.  I didn’t see a kid with autism, I saw a kid pretending to be a kid with autism.  But again, he’s not a terrible actor, I just thought the performance could have been better.  Which leads me to the conclusion that this film is very much a mixed bag.  Somethings it does well, or at least pleases me, and others could have been better.  It doesn’t have the best portrayals of autism, but it is an enjoyable one for me.  Take that for what it’s worth!

And so that wraps up today’s review!  As always, thank you some much for watching my Hanime on Autism reviews and stick around for a review on Ghibli film that’s sure to be purr-fectly interesting.  Til next time, bye!

-Hanime on Anime