How The Accountant 2 Fails Its Characters

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3BgS7jbT2MoHQEDe5nBdhz?si=bLa3ERIfSvaNdEiRFuq6Og

A few months ago, maybe weeks who knows, everything is blending together in this hellscape we currently occupy, there was an article where a Hollywood insider said there was a desire among the studios to make movies and shows that can be passively watched. The general idea is that viewers who are watching these things at home should be able to enjoy it without actively engaging with what they're watching.

This brings me to The Accountant 2, a movie that goes so far out of its way to be apolitical, it makes Captain America: Brave New World look like it is tackling hot-button issues head-on. There's a lot to complain about with The Accountant 2, but I want to use this as an opportunity to hone in on one character who is utterly and completely shafted in terms of character development in a way that is part of a troubling trend to, for lack of a better word (perhaps one I'm making up), totemize the process to make it seem like it is happening when it really isn't.

The character is Cynthia Addai-Robinson's Marybeth Medina, the Treasury agent who works with Ben Affleck and Jon Bernthal to try and track down the person who killed J.K. Simmons. We find out she was recently promoted to the role because she was receiving tips from Affleck and his team about people committing financial crimes. We are also introduced to her in the context that she is trying to find a new comfortable chair for her office. At the end of the movie, she has found a chair for her office when the big arrests happen.

Now symbolizing the start and finish of a character arc is not something new, nor is it necessarily the problem. The problem is how the arc is executed between these two points. About halfway through the movie, she has a conversation with Affleck in which he directly says what her internal conflict is. She cannot find a comfortable chair because she does not feel she deserves to be there. He posits that because she only got promoted through the work of him and his team, she doesn't believe she belongs in the position.

Now, on top of the fact that this is incredibly reductive of her work, this should not need to be told to her. She should know this and be the one to acknowledge it. It's the fact that it takes him to explain this to her that makes a problem, well half of the problem. The other half is that this internal conflict that she has is never actually resolved, she just gets the chair at the end.

Fundamentally the movie ends with this character in the exact same place she started with, just with the shift that she has visually earned her chair. In terms of what her character does however, she's identical to where she is in the beginning. It's still Affleck and his team that uncovers everything and gives it to the Treasury and to make matters worse, the one fight scene she has almost results in her death but for the saving grace of Affleck showing up and saving her life. If this character fundamentally cannot find a comfortable chair because she feels she doesn't deserve it, nothing that happens in this movie should have cleared up that internal conflict.

This "totemic character development" is becoming more and more of an issue and stems from the fact that the studios do not expect the viewer to be fully engaged with what they are watching. If you are cooking dinner and playing a game on your phone while watching this film, you'll end thinking that this character had a full arc but if you actually watch the movie, she's kind of just there to be a vehicle for characters to deliver exposition to. It's also not the point of the movie since the key enjoyment comes from the relationship and chemistry between Affleck and Bernthal. I'd expect to see this more and more as even theatrically released movies are built for streaming to a greater degree, which is unfortunate.