BANK OF DAVE
NETFLIX FILM REVIEW
Bank of Dave is the latest in the series of British Underdog comedy-dramas (Fisherman’s Friends, Swimming with Men etc.) and sees working class Dave (Rory Kinnear) trying to take on the big boys of the financial world by setting up his own bank - the titular Bank of Dave if that wasn’t clear from the title. Dave is aided by upper class lawyer Hugh (Joel Fry), who has never strayed outside of the M25, who arrives in Burnley - a town that he has barely heard of, and wants to leave immediately.
If you can’t already tell where this is going then I’d be amazed.
It is traditional culture clash comedy, which does provide some laughs early on (“I’ve just got back from the North / Where, Hampstead?) but you can’t help but feel like you have seen it all before, and as the story develops, fleeing ever further from reality, the jokes stop working.
Bank of Dave is based on a true story… kind of. It is true that Dave Fishwick did attempt to set up a bank, but that is about as far as the truthfulness goes, which in the end is the films biggest problem. The film starts off rooted in some kind of reality, but very quickly descends further and further into fever dream like fantasy, to a point where it more closely resembled the Mitchell and Webb Yorkshire cricket sketch than anything related to real life.
Its characters aren’t particularly well drawn, and its portrayal of both the working class North, and the London elite, feels like it has been created by a second rate AI, whose only experience of human beings is from watching 1980’s TV sitcoms, a problem demonstrated perfectly byPaul Kayes ridiculous turn as ex-band manager Rick Purdey. It is a character so poorly written, and excruciatingly performed, that it feels out of place and unbelievable, even in a film as pie in the sky as Bank of Dave.
Its vague attempt at politics, as worthy as these politics may be, are shouted from the rooftop, leaving very little discover under the surface. What could have been a pointed look at the finance sector becomes almost offensive in its half hearted squabbles, and while I appreciate the Bank of Dave is an attempt at light hearted comedy-drama, the feel good factor would have been far more poignant if the film had bothered to go deeper into some of the issues it attempts to dissect.
But, and there definitely is a but, it does have a certain amount of charm. For all the hokeyness on display, for all the cartoony characters and the
Joel Fry, especially, wrings every last ounce of emotion out of the script, and it is testament to his performance that something as so inherently unbelievable as his characters arc, manages to provoke a real reaction from the audience. His relationship with Phoebe Dyvenors Alexandra is one of the more believable aspects of the plot (more believable, mind you. Not believable as such, just more believable than everything else)
Dyvenor is excellent in a role which, unfortunately, doesn’t;t require her to do a huge amount. She makes the most of her limited screen time, and probably deserved a far larger part.
Rory Kinnear, who to my mind is one of the greatest character actors of his generation, does his best with what he has and, while his accent occasionally slips into caricature, he just about hold up his end of the bargain.
Bank of Dave is not a good film. I think it would be hard for anyone to look at it objectively and say that it is. But, if you can let go of reality for a couple of hours - because you really will need to - it might just entertain you. It will rely on its audience giving it a lot of credit, but if they do they may come away happy.
For me though, it was more pay day loan than high interest savings account. It might have seemed like a good idea at the time, but the longer you spend with it, the more you might wish you’d never bothered.