I did not expect to love this one as much as I did.
Crime thriller, action movie, family drama, character study, all crammed together. A couple of those pieces don’t fit perfectly, sure. But somehow the whole thing works, and by the end I was completely won over.
Ben Affleck is fantastic. He plays Christian Wolff, an autistic accountant who also happens to be a highly trained killer. What got me is how careful he is with it. The social awkwardness is never played for a laugh. It feels real, and you actually care about this guy.
Here’s what stuck with me. The film keeps showing Wolff’s need for order: his numbers, the way he lines everything up, even the way he pulls his truck into the garage. When the action kicks in, it’s the exact same thing. His violence isn’t separate from who he is. It’s an extension of how his brain works. Precise, clean, controlled.
Anna Kendrick brings warmth to the back half, and the two of them together give the story a heart it needed. Jon Bernthal shows up too, and he’s exactly as menacing as you’d want.
Gavin O’Connor shoots the action so you can actually follow it: clean, brutal, easy to read.
If you skipped this one, that was a mistake. Go fix it.
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