Ben Affleck’s most underrated movie tops Netflix chart

One of Ben Affleck’s best movies from the 2010s has reached the top of the Netflix chart, years after it divided critics. “Sometimes different scares people.”

Affleck has his fair share of turkeys, and they’re indefensible; this includes Gigli and its “gobble gobble” hilarity, his abysmal festive effort with Surviving Christmas, and 2017’s ‘Josstice League’ (admittedly, that wasn’t his fault).

However, in between Batman v Superman and Live By Night (yawn) in 2016, he portrayed one of his best characters: Christian Wolff, the math genius and clinical assassin at the heart of The Accountant.

The movie, directed by Gavin O’Connor (the same filmmaker behind Warrior and Miracle), follows Wolff as he takes on a “legitimate” client after years of uncooking the books of arms dealers, dodgy politicians, and other dangerous figures. Initially, it’s to throw an FBI investigation off his scent — but as he digs into the numbers, shady dealings emerge with fatal consequences.

Affleck’s role was criticized; his character is autistic, and reminiscent of people’s concerns over Dustin Hoffman’s character in Rain Man, some people felt iffy about Wolff being a savant for both maths and violence. That, and its 53% score on Rotten Tomatoes shows a fair bit of division in its original reviews — which is a shame, because it’s a taut, slightly silly, and hefty thriller that’s pretty touching, and it has superb performances all-round.

While Affleck is terrific as Wolff — quiet, taciturn, swinging between torture and focus in his head — the other stars are great too, like Anna Kendrick, J. K. Simmons, and Jon Bernthal.

Fortunately, Netflix viewers have been enjoying it too, rocketing it to number one on the streaming platform’s chart. “The Accountant on Netflix. 10/10. He’s a bad mf,” one user tweeted.

“The Accountant on Netflix is the best movie I’ve seen in a min,” another wrote. “Ben Affleck’s finest film, The Accountant, is on Netflix. I am not even joking, I *love* this movie,” a third posted. “The Accountant is a great movie. Not only just for being badass, but as a major motion picture addressing spectrum disorders in an appropriate and educational way. It’s on Netflix. Watch it,” a fourth wrote.

As well as The Accountant, you can also find out what other movies you should be streaming on Netflix and other new films coming out in April.