The Bank [M]

Welcome to the world of the bank, a dank and underground cesspool of avarice and corruption. Enter fresh-faced maverick mathematician, Jim Doyle, in his first job out of university. Jim has devised a program that can predict the fluctuations of the market, thus forewarning the bank when it’s due for a crash. Once in the fold of corrupt boss Simon O’Reilly and his ilk, Jim must prove his loyalty to the bank and exhibit his belief in the ‘greed is good’ ethos. But after such a sacrifice is made, the true nature of Jim’s genius comes into view and so begins an epic game of cat and mouse between the bank and the people it screws with. 

Redefining the revenge story and the one-man war, Robert Connolly’s The Bank stands as a slow, but ultimately quite clever and well-made thriller. I’ll admit that there are points when you have to ask yourself “why am I watching this? I don’t understand what’s going on”, but let me tell you that if you ignore that little voice in your head and persevere with the flick, you will be rewarded. 

Welcome to the world of the bank, a dank and underground cesspool of avarice and corruption. Enter fresh-faced maverick mathematician, Jim Doyle, in his first job out of university. Jim has devised a program that can predict the fluctuations of the market, thus forewarning the bank when it’s due for a crash. Once in the fold of corrupt boss Simon O’Reilly and his ilk, Jim must prove his loyalty to the bank and exhibit his belief in the ‘greed is good’ ethos. But after such a sacrifice is made, the true nature of Jim’s genius comes into view and so begins an epic game of cat and mouse between the bank and the people it screws with. 

The film’s confusion comes really with its territory. We’re placed in the world of economics and the bank, a place that most people in the world don’t give two shits about and would prefer to avoid just quietly. Connolly does a wonderful job in representing the world of the bank in exactly the way that we as everyday people perceive it. The language and jargon is thick and hard to understand, there is minimal colours and lighting used: ironically when the film shot at its brightest, it features cold colours like TV screen blues and when shot in its darkest, then we see pinks and oranges. Never underestimate just how much colour and lighting can have an effect on creating a sense of place! 

The film also features two great performances from its leading men who go head to head in a battle of who can out-calm the other. Anthony LaPaglia as Simon O’Reilly is sinisterly cool and collected, like a cucumber kept in the dark and David Wenham as Jim Doyle exhibits a similar level of unreadable-ness but with a fresher face and a more approachable quality. Both are great though. 

Starring Sibylla Budd, Steve Rodgers, Mitchell Butel, Mandy McElhinney, Greg Stone, and Kazuhiro Muroyama, The Bank is an exciting thriller that is hard to get into at first, but is worth the perseverance. Filled with conflicts of morals, values, drama, romance, death, and revenge it’s a film that doesn’t seem to have a clear path to follow and that’s what makes it worth watching because the twists of the plot are ones that have the potential to really stay with you.