What do you think about The Accountant (2016)

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My brother wife has brought the movie on a USB stick, she got it from her friend, but not yet watched. We watched the movie together on my laptop.

The main character, had Asperger's, I wonder what you think about this film

And more specifically on the main charterer Asperger therapy methods

It looks okay but it may give people the wrong impressions of autism.

"wrong impressions?"

Can you be a little bit more specific?

Well you know when they next think of autism they'll think Geniuses!, Bad social skills!, Good at Maths!

They might think of autism as being less serious.

By doing that maybe are giving people the wrong association of autism. You see most people are low functioning can't even talk, have crippling sensory issues etc. We shouldn't be ignoring them.

From the thread I started....

Interesting movie.

Ben Affleck plays a CPA/assassin who is autistic. He's hired by the worst people to "uncook" their books to look for stuff that's been hidden, and the movie flashes back to events in his life that made him the way he is.

He's not an "assassin" by trade, but his dad (US Army) had him and his brother trained by various "specialists" as they moved from base to base during their childhood. When someone violates his "moral code," he opens a can of "whup ass" on them. As he deals with very unsavory characters, it makes some sense as he needs to be able to protect himself and "disappear" when needed.

I'm not endorsing how they showed the dad "preparing" his autistic kid to face adult life, but in principle, the idea was sound. He wanted his kid to test his limits, push the boundaries and be stronger for it.

In the movie, Affleck's character has a nightly ritual. He exposes himself to heavy metal and flashing strobe lights while rolling a wooden rod up and down his shin bone (pain infliction). After he's done, he takes a pill and goes to bed. Seems very masochistic, but it's clear he has the daily ritual in which he overloads his visual, auditory and tactile senses so that he can handle "real life" the next day.

Movie was real bad ass to watch (rooting for Affleck), but at the same time, seeing how the father chose to approach having an autistic son left me with mixed feelings. Good intentions but very questionable application.

Anyone else seen the movie?

I won't forget that awful ritual anytime soon. Yikes! It seems like the kid bought into his father's philosophy of toughening up.

Overall, I found the plot pretty weak. There were action scenes but it wasn't exactly a suspenseful thriller either. There was a psychological profile of the accountant to some degree, but that was pretty much summed up in this thread, with the exception of the prison scenes and his halfway friendship with the girl which brought in some lighter moments. The ending wasn't at all what I expected, not sure if it's good or bad. If you're looking forward to seeing the accountant solve a mystery, this isn't the movie for you either.

it is a C movie like total crap s**t

I really liked the movie, I could totally relate to the main character. My father is in the army, and I have studied to be an accountant due to strength with numbers. I could relate to the stimming from over stimulation. Totally on point for social interaction, the awkwardness yet cues in the way he acts relating to his opinion over what might be perceived. There was a particular moment where the way he talked to the girl showed that he had indeed become quite comfortable with her, and then changes with the other lady because he is not as comfortable with her, and I could relate. And totally his sense of humour, there is the kind of idea that some of us can lack a sense of humour but that is not true, and totally got things such as him covering that painting she liked with the painting of the one she said that she hated. And lastly the morality code, which reminded me of some times in high school where I could be pretty tolerant of things to a point, but when I felt a morality code break, I could go berserk.

I could not really relate to all his cool action stuff, maybe except through time within video games where I often find myself trying to be perfectly efficient. He killed bad guys in his way, but he also did a bunch of good things, such as the fact he was un-cooking books of the bad guys he dealt with, donated his gains, and helped the government by feeding them information. He was a cool guy in the movie, which not to toot my own horn, but altruistic like I feel compelled to do in video games which is the environment I am fighting bad guys.

And the reveal at the end of the partner, it is like a direct facing of the worry Shahunshah, that it is a general acknowledgment that preconceptions of intelligence regardless of saying, hey he is a math genius, and if not they are idiots. I really enjoyed that.

As the first autistic lead character by A list Hollywood star in a mainstream movie since "Rain Man" combined with Autism being central to the marketing of the film would have made this film notable in Autism history no matter what the portrayal was. Many TV shows still do not acknowledge their characters Autism. The Affleck character did advance how autism is portrayed. As mentioned it is yet another Autistic savant characterization, but the autistic character is not cute and stims. He is not the only Autistic character. You have those in the facility with various levels and I think the Anna Kendrick character has a number of traits. One portrayed will not and cannot undo all the wrong portrayals and stigmas.

There has been a lot focus on father, there must be a lot of young reviewers because the 'tough it out" fathering was not unusual in the 80's when the Affleck character would have grown up.

And how did you like that father taught autistic son to beat the Bullies, he even drove the boys to place where bullies ware !