Autism Spectrum Disorder in the Movie “The Accountant.”
Introduction
The movie “The Accountant” is an American movie directed by Gavin O’Connor. The movie is a crime action-thriller film written by Bill Dubuque. The movie premiered in Los Angeles on October 10, 2016, and was later theatrically released by Warner Bros Pictures on October 14, 2016. The movie “The Accountant” received mix reviews from critics worldwide based on its characterization. The movie’s storyline follows a small town Illinois certified public accountant, Chris Wolff, with autism spectrum disorder. The accountant makes his living uncooking the books of dangerous criminal organizations that are experiencing internal embezzlement around the world. Chris Wolff portrays a mental health disorder called autism spectrum disorder. The character is shown shaking and murmuring to himself while unboxing a puzzle which he rapidly attempts to put it together. However, when he fails to assemble the puzzle due to a missing piece, he starts to scream inconsolably repeating over and over that he has to finish assembling the puzzle. Furthermore, Chris Wolf is also stubborn and fixates on things like wearing one T-shirt due to tactile sensitivity. For instance, his mother is stressed when she sees him screaming uncontrollably, throwing things and punching through walls. He is also sensitive to bright light and loud noises. Even to his adulthood, Chris still murmurs his nursery school song repeatedly when faced with a stressful situation. He also blows his fingers repeatedly while performing his routine chores, particularly when cooking. The character is also obsessively attached to his job and does not get along well with people. Therefore, he lacks the social skills necessary for maintaining a personal relationship.
Character’s Portrayal
Christian Wolf is portrayed as math genius living with autism. He is portrayed as an individual lacking social skills. Instead, he is obsessed with his work. Chris has a very flat affect, and he does not seem very warm or friendly. This makes the character to appear more withdrawn from personal relationships. He would rather concentrate on his work rather than spend time socializing with people. He has significant trouble understanding what other people are thinking as he cannot pick up on vital social cues (Frith & Happe, 2005). When he meets the farmer and his wife, Christian demonstrates a lack of social skills or affection when he flatly tells the woman that he does not like necklaces, yet he stares at it for a long time. Christian’s stare at her necklace made her believe that he admires it but she is disappointed by his attitude. Moreover, the farmer invites Christian to his home for fishing, but he objects flatly, insisting that he likes shooting instead. Apparently disappointed, the farmer obliges and tells him that there is plenty of space for shooting if he would like to visit them. His meeting with the family demonstrates his unfriendliness and lack of social skills.
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Christian Wolf is a certified public accountant working for dangerous criminal organizations. The movie portrays him as a good person who is a victim his evil employers, the terrorist organizations. He is a hapless mental calculator who tracks insider financial deceptions for the numerous criminal organizations he works for. Christian’s clients are brokered to him through phone by an unidentified female voice that originates from a restricted number. He accepts payments in various forms such as cash, rare comics, paintings by famous artists and gold bricks. It the same voice that gives Christian his latest assignment at a robotics corporation called Living Robotics. He is to audit robotics in order to unearth a mystery involving the loss of millions of the company. The events that ensued sees Christian denied the opportunity to conclude his findings as one of the company directors dismisses him. As a result, he is disturbed for having not accomplished his mission, a behavior closely associated with his autistic condition. This is even seen in his childhood when he failed to assemble the puzzle.
Christian is a single man living alone in his house. He cooks for himself every time he gets home from the job. This may be attributed to his mental condition because he is unable to maintain social relationships with people. As such, this may have deterred him from establishing a relationship with someone. He has no art or photos or even any decorations in his house. Interestingly, Christian owns exactly one plate, one knife, one fork, one spoon. Moreover, Christian is highly ritualized in the way he prepares his food in the house, and he continuously shows small tics such as blowing on his fingers before picking up his fork. While in his house, Christian keeps picking up a small wooden rod that he uses to roll on his leg muscles. He tries to keep calm while subjecting himself to the stressful stimuli until when his alarm beeps marking the time for taking his medication.
In the movie “The Accountant” there is a significant difference in which women and men with autism are characterized. The women are assigned insignificant roles and are portrayed as having limited capabilities. On the other hand, men with autism are depicted as having exemplary capabilities. For instance, Justine, a female with autism in the movie, is depicted as mute and plays a minor role in the movie. She is only seen helping Christian to assemble the puzzle at the beginning of the movie. She is also shown interacting with a young boy towards the end of the movie. She shows the boy the powerful computer and even begins to communicate with him using the computer because she cannot speak. Therefore, the movie depicts women with autism as individuals who are incapable of contributing actively and positively in the society. Justine is confined to Harbor Neuroscience Institute in New Hampshire since childhood until the moment she is seen with the young boy towards the end of the movie. She is not seen going places or working in any organization. This indicates that Justine has been dependent on her parents since childhood. She does not have a house of her own or a career to build on. The woman uses an expensive computer that was apparently donated by Christian to the organization. As such, the movie portrays female characters with mental health disorder as incapable of taking charge of their own lives in terms socialization and outstanding career development. On the other hand, the male characters with autism portrayed as independent and skilled individuals who can extraordinarily excel in life. Despite being autistic, Christian is depicted as a super action hero with incredible math abilities that fit neatly into standard manly hyper-competence. Christian even has a superhero origin story in that he was trained by top combat specialists around the world to protect himself from bullies. The male character, Christian has a flourishing career as an accountant earning enough money to donate to his former institution. The male character with autism, Christian plays a significant role in the movie while Justine features briefly. The male characters are given an opportunity to shine a light on the world while the female counterparts play seemingly insignificant roles. Therefore, the movie seems to undermine female characters with autism in the movie.
The aspect of stereotyping is evident in the movie “The Accountant.” The audience expects that Christian and Dana will achieve a lasting romantic relationship. This represents an insidious overly done stereotype in movies in which disable characters like Christian are routinely denied the opportunity to have meaningful human relationships. A disable viewer would like to see a disable character getting the romantic ending. However, in many movies involving disable characters, there will either be no suggestion of sexuality or romance will be destroyed completely as a direct result of the disability of the characters. Therefore, stereotyping is evident in the film as Christian and Dana fail to achieve a lasting romantic relationship due to the fact that Christian is autistic. He is therefore denied a meaningful human relationship as the character portraying autism. Such stereotypes may have undesirable effects on the disabled audience as they may feel disregarded.
In the movie “The Accountant,” it is clear that some groups of people that have been excluded. The portrayals of autism are entire of white people. This presents a significant problem because it erases a visual representation of the great diversity within the disable population. This may create an impression that white people are the only ones with autism problems.
Etiology of the Disorder
Generally, there is no single accepted cause of Autism although several theories exist. Apparently, Autism Spectrum Disorder is most probably caused by multiple factors such as genes, environment, and brain interacting in complex ways (Lord et al., 2013). Additionally, Autism Spectrum Disorder is not etiologically homogeneous. Throughout his childhood, Christian underwent several challenges relating to his condition. His mother was overwhelmed by the burden of raising an Autistic child. Apparently, his father did not get along well with his mother. Her mother ultimately gave up and left them.
The psychologist recommends that Christian should remain in at Harbor Neuroscience Institute where he can be taught coping mechanisms and be provided with a calm and comforting environment that will not exacerbate his sensitivities. The father objects to the proposal by the psychologist and considers a contrary alternative. Because Christian is sensitive to bright light and loud noises, the father decided to expose him to more light and noise because the world will not be able to accommodate his special needs. His father takes him around the world training him on martial art skills that will help him defend himself. Such a treatment from his father may have influenced his mental condition significantly.
Christian’s mother died, and his father died trying to protect him during her burial. The burden of losing two parents at the same time may also have exacerbated his condition. As a result of the incident at his mother’s burial, he was sent to prison. Such a blow may have also had a significant influence on his mental health. Such significant stresses may reinforce the symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder. Christian frequently channeled his anxiety into repetitive behaviors like tapping his fingers, shaking, and talking to himself. Such factors may have contributed to his apparent obsession for his job as a forensic auditor. This made it difficult for him to establish friendships with people around him. Furthermore, he consistently used drugs to suppress his anxiety. He would set alarms to remind him to take the drugs, and he subjected himself to painful stimuli by hitting himself with a wooden rod. Although we are not told about the impact of such stressors, we can deduce that such stressors may have exacerbated his mental condition.
Treatment Issues
The psychologist recommended that Christian should remain at the Harbor Neuroscience Institute where he would be taught coping mechanisms and be provided a calm environment that would not exacerbate his sensitivities. The Psychologist discussed Christian’s apparent sensitivity to bright light and loud noises. The young Christian was also stubborn and fixated on things due to tactile sensitivity. As a result, Christian would channel his anxiety into repetitive behaviors like talking to himself, tapping his fingers and shaking. The neuroscience institute would help teach Christian effective coping techniques as well as provide him the necessary environment for the treatment. However, his father objects to the psychologist’s proposal on Christian’s treatment and decides to expose him to bright light and noise. This is because he believes that the world will not accommodate his special needs. He trains Christian and his brother with martial art specialists. This is an abusive militaristic upbringing for a child such as Christian. This would help him defend himself according to his father.
The treatment is affordable to Christian’s family because his father is a soldier whose family was definitely medically covered. It is his father who deliberately turns down the proposal to have Christian stay at the institute. The economic privileges Christian’s family apparently enjoys may have contributed to his success in life. He becomes one of the most sought after forensic auditor earning a lot of money enough to even donate to his former institute. His father is capable of affording Christian training with martial art specialists who equip him with effective self-defense skills. The therapeutic alliance between Christian and the institute’s director was effective. The triggers of Christian’s sensitivity were identified early enough. The outcome led his father into exposing him to such triggers in order to get him used to the conditions presented by such triggers. However, Christians continue to deal with the symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder. It could be that Christian has decided to cope with the mental condition while using drugs to suppress the anxiety associated with the symptoms.
Message and Impact
The movie has done well to depict the true experiences and challenges that people with Autism face. The movie attempts to demonstrate that people with autism are not less than but different in terms of abilities. The movie is an honest depiction of a typical autistic central character. The screenwriter should have spent a lot of time consulting with experts and members of the autistic community as well as researching on autism. As such, the movie depicts a nuanced and empathetic characterization.
I would have changed several things in the movie. First, I would try to balance the characterization of genders in a way that would avoid gender discrimination. I would give a female character a significant role and abilities that would shape attitudes regarding autism for both genders. In this case, a male character is given absolute emphasis. This disregards the diverse nature of people with autism. I would also eliminate stereotypes in the film. I would allow Christian and Dana to achieve a lasting romantic relationship just like all other people.
The movie echoes the notion that people with autism choose to be victims by themselves. For instance, Christian’s father tells him that “life is a series of choices, the first of which is to be a victim. Victim or not, make a decision” (The Accountant, 2016). The attitude expressed by the movie serves to exemplify an ethos that places the blame for victimization squarely on the shoulders of individuals with autism. Therefore, the attitude will have the effect of justifying the decisions made by people with autism regardless of whether it is right or wrong.
The current therapy practices involve individual engagement with the treatment sessions. The patient is expected to adhere to the recommendations of the therapist. The patient is protected from trigger stimuli such as bright light and loud noise as much as possible. However, the image portrays a divergence from the traditional therapy practice. Christian is subjected to militaristic treatment with the objective of exposing him to bright light and loud noises. Christian was supposed to be provided with a calm environment that is free of bright light and loud noise.
References
Gavin, O. (Director), Lynet , H. (Producer). The Accountant . USA. Warner Bros. Pictures
Frith, U., & Happé, F. (2005). Autism spectrum disorder. Current biology , 15 (19), R786-R790.
Lord, C., Cook, E. H., Leventhal, B. L., & Amaral, D. G. (2013). Autism spectrum disorders. Autism: The Science of Mental Health , 28 (2), 217.
