America had Ryan Gosling in The Big Short, breaking down the 2008 financial crisis from the Wall Street office of Deutsche Bank. Britain has Rory Kinnear singing karaoke Whitesnake in the Duck and Drake, Burnley. The movie is Bank of Dave, an assertively genial comedy based on the true story of Dave Fishwick. He was, and is, the owner of a Lancashire minibus dealership which in 2011 responded to the reluctance of post-crash banks to lend to local businesses with a community-led model, personally underwritten: Burnley Savings and Loans.
The regulatory system will be confronted. For now, though, the antagonist is played by London in general, revealed to be filled with “tossers”. (The film’s words, not mine.) The worst are, of course, the bankers. (Again, blame the script.) A close second are the lawyers, from among whose ranks shuffles Hugh (Joel Fry), the junior pen-pusher charged with helping Dave secure status as a bank.
The result is a brash, feelgood affair from the school of The Full Monty and director Chris Foggin’s own, more recent sleeper hit Fisherman’s Friends. Still, even while broadly going with it, sticking points arise. One is the odd story structure that makes Hugh more central than Fishwick. I may also be a churl for having googled Burnley Savings and Loans, and found the Bank of Dave is still, officially, awaiting regulatory approval as a bank from the Prudential Regulation Authority and Financial Conduct Authority. Then again, I am a Londoner. Everyone knows what we’re like.
★★★☆☆
On Netflix now
