This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
Loose Ends
Plot Overview
When retired Treasury Agent Raymond
King (JK Simmons) is hit by assassins in a night club, authorities
contact his emergency number from his phone: Treasury Agent
Marybeth Medina (Cynthia Addai-Robinson.) She looks up
his penned “accountant” Christian
Wolff (Ben Affleck) whom we met earlier in “The Accountant.” He in turn contacts
his manic, sociopathic bro Braxton (Jonathan Bernthal.) With
the aid of computer-savvy students from the Harbor
Neuroscience Academy, they track down leads, bust some heads,
and intervene in a human trafficking affair.
King had been trying to locate a
boy, Albert now dead or 13, from a snapshot taken many years
ago. He'd been disappeared. It is well nigh impossible to find
someone not meant to be found. King wanted to give the autistic-savant
accountant a shot at it. As author J.M. O'Neill writes:
Harney had learnt,
a long time ago, that in running there was no hiding-place; he
could look back over decades to his teens, to desolate blighted
schooldays when for two years he had kept ahead of the
attendance-men, the ‘bounty hunters’. But they had
nabbed him in the end, placed him in care of dedicated Brothers in
holy orders who had instilled the three Rs, implanted them;
instructed him in the trombone with a blackthorn stick.
He had hit a flat C before the Lady Mayoress on a sports day and he
could still remember the remedial horrors.
Was there an escape, he had wondered then.
Years at sea had been clean; he had fallen in love with horizons,
even storms, until the randy piano-tuner had tapped his Nancy's
keyboard. He looked at his hands. All accounts settled. A
sojourn behind walls and doors had expiated the sin, rearranged the
mind, they had told him— Behind the contrite mask that
psychiatry and walls and bars had patiently fashioned, bequeathed
him, Harney's homicide grin was hiding. (143, 153)
Ideology
The heavy homicidal action lends itself to comparison
with one of Kenny Rogers's songs concerning a chance encounter with
“The Gambler” on a train bound for nowhere. He offered
his fellow passenger the advice that “the secret to surviving
is knowing what to throw away and knowing what to keep.” The
refrain of the song goes:
You've got to know when to hold 'em, Know when to fold 'em, Know when to walk away, Know when to run. You never count your money when you're sittin' at the table. There'll be time enough for countin' when the dealin's done.
This wisdom of the gambling man's repertoire is old as the hills and was passed on by a raconteur, Agur in Proverbs 30:1, whose four metaphors offered the same life advice as did Rogers's Gambler. That we find in, (Proverbs 30:29-31) “There be three things which go well, yea, four are comely in going: A lion which is strongest among beasts, and turneth not away for any; A greyhound; an he goat also; and a king, against whom there is no rising up.”
We have Agur's “lion which is strongest among beasts, and turneth not away for any,” and we have Rogers's “know[ing] when to hold 'em.” In our movie when some dressed-up cowpoke at the Cowboy Palace confronts Wolff for making moves on his supposed girl—they were line dancing—Wolff deliberately insults him knowing that his brother has his back and loves to punch out guys who deserve it.
We have Agur's “king, against whom there is no rising up,” and we have Rogers's “Know[ing] when to fold 'em.” A king who knows when to give in to his subjects doesn't experience any uprising. To get a lead on the trafficking, the brothers entertain three putas in a motel room asking them to request the presence of their pimp. They pay through the nose to one of them willing to risk her life for a steep negotiated price.
We have Agur's
“he goat also” and we have Rogers's “Know[ing]
when to walk away.” A mysterious revenant blonde is seen on
surveillance calmly walking away from the shoot-up when
everyone else is panicking. They need to talk to her.
We have Agur's
“greyhound” and Rogers's “Know[ing] when to
run.” When the traffickers find themselves about to be exposed,
they decide to destroy the evidence by bussing their captives to a mass
grave in the desert. The good guys are onto them but cannot wait till dark,
because they're vamoosing for a daytime burial.
The gambler gave the advice:
You never count your money when you're sittin' at the table.
There'll be time enough for countin' when the dealin's done.
There's a celebration at the end.
Production Values
“” (2025) was directed by Gavin O'Connor. It was written by Bill Dubuque. It stars Ben Affleck, Jon Bernthal and Cynthia Addai-Robinson. Affleck and Bernthal have excellent buddy chemistry together being both army brats, damaged goods. Addai-Robinson is lost to the spotlight towards the end.
MPA rated it R for strong violence, and language throughout. Heavy action is transposed with thoughtful reflection giving the movie a unique feel. Electronic surveillance plays a strong role as well. Runtime is 2 hours 12 minutes.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Nail-biting action-packed. Suitability For Children: Not Suitable for Children of Any Age. Special effects: Well done special effects. Video Occasion: Fit For a Friday Evening. Suspense: Keeps you on the edge of your seat. Overall movie rating: Four stars out of five.
Works Cited
Scripture quoted from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Software.
O'Neill, J.M. Canon Bang Bang. Copyright © J. M. O'Neill, 1989. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1989. Print.
Rogers, Kenny. Songwriter Don Schlitz. “The Gambler.” Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Pub. LLC. Web.
bibles.n7nz.org