The Accountant Films (Gavin O'Connor, 2016/201?)

[Ribs]

In one of my increasingly rare theatrical trip I managed to see two of the most mediocre films of the year both of which are completely worthless outside of the acting department.
...
The other film is the fair bit better The Accountant which gives less to talk about as a result. It's an okay film that could have been a lean Point Blank type thriller in better hands (so much of this screams off brand Soderbergh). There's an entire plotline with two characters that serves exclusively for poorly delivered exposition that frankly should have never gotten to casting let alone be in the film. The script is incredibly bad, but the acting so good that it almost balances out into a half decent thriller. Affleck does his best with a best situation doing the least tick driven autistic performance I've seen even if it asks him to do some unbelievable things in the name of some imagined idea of autism. Jeffrey Tambor and Jean Smart show up to successfully class up the joint and Anna Kendrick continues to be simply adorable. JK Simmons is the lead in that waste of a plot I mentioned at top and really plays it like a lead which I mean as a compliment.

They're making a sequel to the Accountant, a bad movie that's best quality was a return for John Lithgow to a pulpy thriller villain role and whose worst was the implicit underpinning that we should all be terrified of autistic people because they'll murder everyone

[knives]

No Kendrick no sale. Her existing in an entirely different movie was the only good thing about the bizarre first one (aside from Lithgow and Simmons merely existing).

[Ribs]

There was such a basic thrill in seeing Lithgow doing his evil thing; it feels like it's been forever. Just him being holed up in a giant mansion, watching his bodyguards being taken out one by one, moaning "he's coming to get me!" is basically the only thing I would save from the entire movie

[Brian C]

They're making a sequel to the Accountant, a bad movie that's best quality was a return for John Lithgow to a pulpy thriller villain role and whose worst was the implicit underpinning that we should all be terrified of autistic people because they'll murder everyone

I dunno. I have a friend who has an autisttic five-year-old son, she's really involved in autism awareness activism, and she loved the movie. Said Affleck was amazing and that she saw a lot of her son's behavior in his performance. I'm not saying your reaction is wrong, it's a reasonable concern to have about the movie, but ... well, I dunno.

[knives]

The film doesn't even suggest that though. It sets up that he was trained in really weird circumstances. Also

SpoilerShow

his not autistic brother is just as effective as a killer so even just in terms of the reality set forth by the film Affleck just happens to be autistic rather than that having to do anything with his assassin abilities. If Ribs is referring to the bar sequence it seems if I remember right that he was acting on ethics and not anything to do with autism.

[Ribs]

I was deeply uncomfortable with the depiction of it, but I'll happily concede if it's done anything to actually increase understanding or advocacy in any way for anyone it's not a problem that others might share (or find universal). I think no matter what it's an implicit issue that is there simply by doing a film depicting someone with Autism who kills people - but the caveats the film makes may well be enough to not make it so fundamentally problematic.

[knives]

I'll just paraphrase my aspergers having brother after watching the film and this topic came up. If regular peeps can have Bruce Willie smashing airplanes with cars or any of the other cool action stuff you see why not give autistic people a fun piece of dumb as well?

[Big Ben]

As I've said in other threads I'm on the autism spectrum and Affleck is sort your average autistic character presented in movies. The stereotype you should watch out for the myth that people on the autism spectrum are sociopathic monsters out to harm everyone with their nefariousness. For clarification I don't get mad about people saying that because most people simply don't know much about autism itself. But I feel a calm approach and saying that "Yes this is a stereotypical view of said group of people" is the best solution. Are there autistic sociopaths? Sure. But in the same vein as there are non autistic people who are also sociopaths. Beware of stereotypes folks!

[mfunk9786]

Yes, there are autistic sociopaths.

There absolutely, absolutely are.

[Big Ben]

Long post but I'll tie it into the films I promise.

(If I might offer an opinion about swimminghorses and the other thread. THAT looks like a pair of trolls to me. And everyone involved got taken for rides so extreme I can only say I wish I could have been there. Sadly Alan Clarke is the only infamous forum member I've encountered. That doesn't look like autism to me. That's god level shitposting.)

Speaking from personal experience my problem has always been too much empathy. Insofar that as a child I had problems watching or playing sports because I became incredibly upset at the other team losing. This is of course not a rational reaction but it's one I'd like people to take note of as I write more. This at times made me withdraw because it became unpleasant to feel bad all the time.

When discussing my condition with people I prefer a very calm discourse because first and foremost it discounts the popular notion that autistic individuals partake in what trolls have now dubbed "autistic screeching". While there are certainly individuals whose lives are unfortunately dominated by a cycle of agitated behavior (Loud screaming. Violent outbursts etc.) that is only one area of the spectrum. Years ago I would have qualified as someone with Asperger's. That is no longer a diagnosis and so now I simply fall into the "high functioning" category.

The most common depictions of autism in film fall into one of two categories. The sort of "savant" character like Affleck's character who are REALLY good at what they do but not much else. The other is the one who doesn't do much at all (See Leonardo DiCaprio in What's Eating Gilbert Grape). The only depiction that I felt was somewhat accurate was Hugh Dancy's portrayal of Will Graham in Bryan Fuller's Hannibal. While his abilities are exaggerated to god like status his character at least has some semblance of identity outside of his work. (He marries and has children for instance). I felt Graham wasn't defined entirely by how autistic he was. It is by no means perfect but at least he's not horrendous. We could certainly argue the merits of the show in the shows official thread but I wanted to cover all grounds.

In closing I feel that when talking about high functioning characters I would only ask you give them the same rules as you would any other character you feel needed to be three dimensional.

[Mr Sausage]

What I liked about The Accountant's portrayal of autism came in one rather subtle scene. Affleck watches a topless man being fitted for a prosthetic arm as John Lithgow natters at Affleck. When Lithgow asks if Affleck has any questions, or some basic conversational thing like that, Affleck replies with the non-sequitur "I'm cold", showing that stereotypical autistic disconnect. Lithgow makes a confused face and the film movies on. What's subtle about this scene is that, thinking back on it, you realize Affleck is not saying "I'm cold". He's saying "the patient without his shirt on is cold." So the disconnect is not between Affleck and human emotions or human sympathy, it's a disconnect between what he feels and thinks and his ability to communicate that to other people. He is in fact quite sympathetic, sometimes in more pointed and basic ways than those around him. He just doesn't have that expressive ability that comes from easy social navigation. Much of what he means is lost. I thought this scene was admirable and much better than an earlier ham-handed one that tried something similar. It, the charming and well-acted scenes between Affleck and Kendrick, and some good action scenes were enough that I liked the movie. But overall I thought the portrayal of an autism-spectrum character showed a lot of careful thought and understanding.

[cdnchris]

Damn, I didn't realize Lithgow was the villain. Now I need to see this.

[carmilla mircalla]

more than anything I was jarred by this movie's pacing due to its terrible editing. Also Kendrick gave a very awkward performance in this movie