I was keen to see this picture after the first trailer that I saw. Something about it looked interesting to me. I ended up buying it outright rather than watch it first. I figured that I would like it well enough but if I ended up not liking it, I could get rid of it or it would grow on me.
Christian Wolff (played by Ben Affleck) is an accountant who happens to be a math savant as well as autistic. His story is told through flashbacks of memories that he has as well as information gained from surveillance and research performed by the Treasury Departments Crime Enforcement team led by Ray King (played by J.K. Simmons).
On the surface he appears to be a nobody, a local CPA who owns his own accounting firm in Illinois. But it becomes obvious (to the audience at least) that Christian is the same person that Ray King is seeking in connection with powerful criminals across the world. It turns out that when criminal overlords/bosses/etc need someone to "cook their books" they call on Christian.
While Ray and his newest team member Marybeth Medina (played by Cynthia Addai-Robinson) work to find out who Christian is, Christian is called to "uncook books" at a legitimate robotics research and development company run by Lamar Blackburn (played by John Lithgow). An accounting clerk who works at the company named Dana Cummings (played by Anna Kendrick) found some discrepancies and the company wants to make sure that everything is copacetic.
At the same time that Ray and Marybeth are converging on Christian and Christian is helping Dana to sort out the books, a situation is developing that appears to be leaving a trail of bodies leading straight to Christian. Someone is intent on removing people that have recently interacted with Christian and so a mysterious man named Brax (played by Jon Bernthal) and his team are hired to take care of the people. Brax is a shadowy elite assassin who is very good at what he does and has a skilled team of assassins working under him so it's just another day at the office for all of them. Or so they mistakenly assume.
After Christian fends off an attack by Brax's team, he decides to rescue Dana as she is apparently the next target on the list. Afterwards Christian determines to get to the bottom of who wants him and Dana dead. At the same time, Ray reveals to Marybeth that the intention behind his investigation isn't as simple as potentially bringing Christian to justice. It turns out that Ray knows more about Christian than originally revealed and he has a few secrets of his own.
The film was better than I anticipated. The acting was good all things considered. The story was well thought out and well executed all things considered. Most of the characters were likable. Even if you didn't like all of the characters, you could at least understand why they do the things that they do. I also liked the more subtle aspects of the picture for example the character Marybeth, why Ray chooses to work with her, and her unexpected connection to Christian.
My biggest complaint about the movie is what I feel is an inaccurate fallacy connected to autism. I've worked with and spent time around people with autism and I know it is a spectrum disorder but I have issue with the movie implying that Christian is a math savant because he is autistic. Maybe that wasn't the movie's intention but that's what it seemed like it was implying. On the other hand it was pleasantly surprising to see Christian portrayed as this bad-ass "Jason Bourne" type despite the fact that he has autism.
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