The Accountant 2 Review: Ben Affleck Gives One of His Best Performances in Sequel Costarring Jon Bernthal

The first Accountant’s relation to this sequel — which continues the adventures of a neurodivergent numbers-cruncher who cooks books for the underworld — is something like that of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to Through the Looking Glass. What started out curious is going to curiouser — funny, violent and wild.

Does this mean that the film’s star, Ben Affleck, is Alice? Possibly. No, need, though, to go looking for a Rabbit in the cast.

But consider: In the first few minutes you witness a Texas bingo game disrupted by a shootout. A novel stunt, certainly. When did you ever get that in an action movie?

Then you drop in on the office of a federal financial-crimes agent, Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson), whose pressing concern at the moment is assessing a Herman Miller desk chair — she’s concerned about her lower back. Action, for the moment, takes a backseat to lumbar support.

Finally, you’re reintroduced to the accountant himself, Christian Wolff (Affleck), as he attends a speed-dating night in Boise, Idaho. Christian has mastered the details of the event’s algorithm, so it’s only a matter of seconds before he’s looking out on a sea of single women. (His dimpled chin doesn’t hurt.) But Christian, even though he wants romance and companionship, doesn’t know how to flirt, charm or tell little white lies. The night, in short, is a bust.

Meanwhile, there’s also his brother Braxton (Jon Bernthal), a professional assassin who was briefly — one might almost say bittersweetly — reunited with Christian in the previous film.

Braxton has just completed an assignment, resulting in a bumper crop of dark-suited corpses strewn all over what appears to be a swank high-rise. He’s rougher-edged than Christian, and garrulous — a hit man who’s a close talker. He won’t stop yammering on about dogs, especially a corgi puppy he’s hoping will be delivered soon. (He also lets drop a factoid for the ages: Toto in The Wizard of Oz was played by a cairn terrier named Terry.)

The brothers will wind up bonding in the course of a complicated story that, in retrospect, barely hangs together, even if you take notes while you watch the thing. But the film has a barreling pace, and that’s what matters.

Still (you persist in asking), what is the story? Something to do with: 1. Yet another assassin (Daniella Pineda), who you’d think would want to avoid going out in public looking like a fashion influencer. 2. A rare neurological phenomenon called acquired savant syndrome. 3. A children’s prison camp in Mexico.

This last plot strand crimps some of Accountant’s fast, loose fun: Kids in prison camps — and this one could end up a death camp, if the villains have their way — aren’t very entertaining. On the other hand, the theme of childhood trauma is significant in both brothers’ pasts. So — okay. And it’s not as if I remember getting all bent out of shape over the endangered children in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.

Affleck, giving one of his best performances, carefully steers clear of any suggestion that this is just Rain Man packing heat. Christian has a neat, purse-lipped, sharp-angled flatness — he’s like something that pops up out of the toaster. Bernthal, with his handsome pugilist’s profile, plays Braxton’s emotions explosively close to the surface. The costars complement each other nicely.

You may prefer one actor over the other, of course, but there’s no accounting for taste.

The Accountant 2 is in theaters now.