Family Movie Night
By Karyn Bowman
My kids are always pushing me to watch movies I think I would not like. Granted, some of them are horror films, which I do not like.
It doesn’t matter if they have a funny bent to them, I can’t watch them at all.
But then there are the action adventure movies that strike at the right moments.
It has been a Ben Affleck week this time around. We just re-watched Batman Vs Superman to watch all of the scenes with Wonder Woman. What I loved about this movie is the reasoning behind Batman’s hatred of Superman. It’s not a jealousy thing but one of the lack of control one has on one’s own life. Especially when the person causing the chaos is a super-strong alien who could turn against us at any time.
Worse yet, the destruction this superhero causes has effects on people he doesn’t know nor appears to have any awareness about those people.
Bruce Wayne/Batman has been there before and he is not willing to give up the control he has fought hard to gain. That is what builds his dislike and distrust until he and Superman can find a common point to trust each other on.
While we might agree this is not the strongest of supper hero movies, you cannot deny that Affleck gives Batman a world-weariness that is appropriate and fitting. He makes the man worth watching through all of his surliness and compassion.
Then my child said “get The Accountant.” So I did, knowing a little bit about this story. Affleck stars as a man who works as a free-lance accountant for underworld clients who need to know they can never take advantage of him. This professional is what many might call a high-functioning person with Autism. He is focused and smart as a whip. Numbers are the one thing that brings calm and order to his life.
But as we see through a series of flashbacks, Chris’ life has never been easy. It is his military father who must figure out how to teach his very different son to survive in the world.
These days he is doing what seems to be a straight-forward job. A lesser employee has found discrepancies in the books of a robotic company. Chris has been hired to find out how it all happened And just as he is about to get there, suddenly the job is over.
So the next thirty minutes of the movie gets a bit silly and ridiculous. There is much action, retaliation, and revelations. Just when you think you know everything, something else is revealed.
The point of this movie is not the incredulous plot line but to see Affleck play a man who is not normal, whatever that is, do things that most normal-developing people can’t do. Is it because of his ability to focus to the max or because of the training he received along the way?
Does it matter if you are just following along? Probably not. This is one of those times you just go with it. Affleck has a tendency to find not so great movies but makes his role worth watching.
I found myself enjoying the movie as I watched. Afterwards, when I took the time to think about what I just seen, I realized that this was a bit of a popcorn revenge movie that had something to say without finding all of the words it needed to use.
Disappointing.
Notes from Rumbly Cottage 