The Writer's Life 5/13 - Accounting & Art

The Accountant (2016) is another entry in modern Hollywood's army-of-one tradition - with a twist. The character is an autistic savant, as equally adept at getting to the core of complicated scams as he is a warrior. I watched it last night courtesy of Netflix. Ben Affleck continued his now long winning streak. Even Batman vs Superman (2016), hammered by critics, brought in tons of money. The main plot of The Accountant involves the protagonist's uncovering of a swindle patterned after what was perpetrated by Crazy Eddie, the appliance king whose commercials were ubiquitous in the '70's and '80's. The man behind the scheme hires assassins to take out the accountant and an employee who first sensed what was afoot. The latter is played by Anna Kendrick, a role half as quirky as Affleck's. Throughout the narrative there are flashbacks of the protagonist's past, the brutal training he underwent with his brother and loving father, a Special Forces operative. The supporting cast is excellent: Jon Bernthal, Jeffrey Tambor, John Lithgow, Jean Smart and, as treasury agents on the trail, J.K. Simmons and Cynthia Addai-Robinson. The action is crisp, the body count high. I did not hit the pause button once during the two hour+ running time. Gavin O'Connor directed, his 15th stint at the helm counting two shorts. He has also written ten screenplays, although not this one, which was done by Bill Dubuque, only his third. It will be interesting to see what the two come up with next. The film fared well at the box office, nearly doubling its $44 million production cost in the USA alone. 160,000+ users at IMDb have rated it, forging to a consensus of 7.4 of ten, with which I agree. Anyone worn out by the deluge of army-of-one flicks or squeamish about violence, should pass, although the blood-letting is far from over the top. There are two twists along the way. I think most viewers would guess the first very early. The second, which occurs at the very end, seems outlandish, although it is amusing.

From Yahoo News: A massive inflatable ballerina created by artist Jeff Koons is the latest public art installation at Manhattan's Rockefeller Center. The 45-foot work is called Seated Ballerina. Here's a pic, also from Yahoo:

The floating book shop was rained out today.

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