Worth: $13.50
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Joel Fry, Rory Kinnear, Phoebe Dynevor, Paul Kaye, Angus Wright, Hugh Bonneville
Intro:
… it does leave you feeling good ... just not for very long.
Bank of Dave is straight from the British feel-good movie playbook. It’s the true but embellished tale of Dave Fishwick, a working class lad from the northern English town of Burnley, who made a mint selling vans and minibuses.
He became an unofficial money-lender to various members of the community – mostly for their small businesses – and had the idea of starting a community bank that would truly serve the locals. But as we’re told in the film, there hasn’t been a new bank licence issued for 150 years…
Dave (Rory Kinnear), however, is not the leading character here – Hugh is. Played by Joel Fry, Hugh is the initially reluctant London lawyer sent to England’s north to help Dave make his bank happen – or at least to expose the horrors of the banking world.
The scruffy Fry is merely adequate as Joel (where is Hugh Grant when you need him?). And his tentative romance with Alexandra – a doctor played by Phoebe Dynevor – has little spark.
Bank of Dave lacks the ensemble cast, or strong supporting actors, that usually lift these comedies – and it’s missing verve. Its pedestrian script has only a few moments of wit but it’s certainly watchable, and improves greatly during the second half as it mines the feel-good factor with music and – for a film that was feeling quite predictable – a few surprises.
There’s the unexpected appearance of a certain hair metal band, plus Burnley’s own Goa Express, who add a brief but impressive appearance. But there’s also some godawful karaoke – the opening scenes of Dave singing Whitesnake’s ‘Here I Go Again’ did not bode well.
But despite its flaws, Bank of Dave – with its message ‘greed is not good’ – largely works in the end and, yes, it does leave you feeling good … just not for very long.
