The Bank Reviews

• Financial Thriller

  
  By A1IWWRZJOXOSYP on 2004-06-11
  "The Bank" is a tight excellently executed Australian film. David Wenham stars as Jim Doyle, a math wizard that's come up with BTSE, an experimental banking program. Wenham has caught audiences' eye as the transvestite playwright in "Moulin Rouge" and as "Faramir" in the two final "Lord of the Rings" films. Here he absorbs into the role as a brainy math guy whose ultimate tale of revenge has a long burning fuse that pops at the film's stunning climax. The romantic angle comes as he falls for Michelle played by newcomer Sibylla Budd.

  Anthony LaPaglia from TV's "Without A Trace" achieves great intensity as the buy & sell businessman Simon O'Reilly whose heart is money. The film's message of corporate responsibility is driven home with the subplot of the bank foreclosing on Wayne & Diane Davis' loan. Blond Steve Rodgers does a nice job as the father bereft by his son's death in a tragic accident as a result of the bank foreclosure. His revenge scene with LaPaglia at the end is brilliantly out of control. Mitchell Butell as the lawyer Stephen does a nice job as the pro bono lawyer who tries to help the couple. This is a first director/screenwriter job for Robert Connelly who keeps the tension flowing, the dialogue pointed & economical, and the visual images of the bank and the lavish home of LaPaglia memorable. This is a small film, but an excellent one, well worth an evening's entertainment. Enjoy!
  
  

• A Tightly Wrought Tale of Greed and Revenge

  
  By A328S9RN3U5M68 on 2003-08-16
  THE BANK is another Australian movie that demonstrates how sophisticated 'foreign' films can be. Robert Connolly directs this tale of corruption with breakneck speed, leaving little time for catching a breath much less understanding the heavily accented dialogue (no English subtitles available on this DVD and many conversations are lost because of the thick Aussie accents by some of the actors). Anthony LaPaglia is the devil incarnate and David Wenham as the new PhD in mathematics who can drive LaPaglia's scheming to disastrous ends. Both are excellent as are the other cast members. The music score by Alan Jones is superb (listen carefully to the boys choral writing) and the graphics are top notch. Not a great movie but a thoroughly entertaining, edge of your seat, wizardlike video game - one in which you as viewer can surmise all the moves.
  
  

• Promising Start, Falls Apart Before End

  
  By A3OXHLG6DIBRW8 on 2009-08-24
  This Australian release was really enjoyable for the first 2/3 of the movie as it ran two interesting but independent story lines, but it falls apart sadly and spirals into the realm of the seriously implausible for the final part of the movie when the stories converge.
  
  No plot spoilers from me, The Bank's main plot centers on mathematician Jim Doyle (David Wenham) who has developed a powerful program to predict stock market trends and the power hungry CEO Simon O'Reilly (Anthony LaPaglia) who wants to exploit the program (and Jim) for significant economic gain. There is a subplot that runs concurrently about a family that suffers a tragedy that is caused, somewhat indirectly, by "The Bank". There is an interesting love interest, Michelle (Sibylla Budd), to add another dimension to Jim and also helps to confuse the plot a bit. The acting is fairly solid, but the standout is an over the top performance by LaPaglia who plays the arrogant capitalist stereotype to perfection.
  
  The cinematography is almost inspired in places. The use of imagery and lighting to convey the richness of the corporate "haves" verses the starkness of the "have nots" was incredibly well done. There were also times where the lighting, music score, and camera moves were used with great effect to build the emotion of the scene.
  
  With almost all movies there is some suspension of disbelief required, and it is easy to over look the over use of chaos theory and fractals thrown in with other techspeak to explain what Jim does, but the actions of people are more predictable so are harder to forgive when one acts completely out of character for the sake of a plot device. There are some interesting plot twists and even a few feel good moments, but overall it fails to deliver a solid and believable story.
  
  If you must see "The Bank", this one is a rent not a buy.
  
  
  
  

• A thriller without violence

  
  By A3U0R1V1IKQ05T on 2007-04-10
  This refreshing movie is a thriller with no physical violence. The hero doesn't try to win the day by punching or shooting. Instead, he uses his intelligence and creativity. One of the main ideas of the film is that it might be possible to predict the stock market using some mathematical formula. Certainly, there is ongoing research into that area. Various formulas have been tried in the last few years with well publicized results. There is a little mathematical mumbo jumbo in the film which probably adds to the production design, but isn't necessary to understand the film. There is a little bit of Hitchcock in the film including some illogic in the script, but it's enjoyable all the same. Anthony La Paglia does some great acting as the antagonist for whom creating additional profit for a corporation is the only goal. In case you think his portrayal is over the top, rent Enron: The Smartest Men in the Room, a chilling documentary about actions in the Board Room.
  
  Many features of the plot of this film were in The Spanish Prisoner which is also a thriller without violence.
  
  

• Good Movie, the Meek inhereting the earth

  
  By A7DXHNY833M04 on 2009-08-27
  I thought the movie was good, darker than you would normally expect with the boy being brought out of the river with the damn bank forclosure notice on in his shirt. But I give it an A because it had a good story line & I appreciated the gordon gecko couterpart who got screwed. Two thumbs up & I got to watch it for free!!
  
  
  Thanks Amazon
  
  
• Usual Suspects meets Wall Street
  By A1WOYB5TUC7KN6 on 2003-06-01
  This is by far the greatest film I have ever seen. It ranks up there with Usual Suspects and House of Games. With The Bank you are essentially watching two movies unfold to an incredible end. Forget Gordan Gekko, Anothoy P. puts him to shame. The computer programmer must have worked for Keiser Sosa. That is how good he is. I just wish the movie would have got a distribution deal. That shows you how shallow Hollywood really is. You won't be disappointed.
  
  
• Banks - love them ot hate them?
  By AJRFZ0VZ0LD26 on 2007-09-28
  Do not watch this movie with anyone who is finance savvy. They will be bored since they can tell that the entire story plot is fake. Some snippets of the finance modelling and chaos theory are being thrown around and it just does not stand as strong as a movie premise for someone who does economics for living, vs. someone who is not familiar with it. Half financial thriller, half morality tale - this is definitely an interesting tale of greed, loss, revenge and healing.
  
  
• Take that you, BAS..............
  By A186U6AC69OA27 on 2009-09-12
  This movie was a weekend special. I didn't have high hopes but it was a great surprise. It was paced well, I found it entertaining. And it was good to see a "Corporate America" get the "what for". Yes!!!!
  
  
• Half decent
  By A2HQYERFHL1BNM on 2009-09-09
  A classic tale of the Good Guy vs. The Man.
  The man with all the ca$h that is.
  
  The ending twists somewhat, but some of it you just expect.
  
  Amazon had a free view of it when I checked it out, which made it a sweet deal.
  Even if it cost a few dollars, it is worth watching.
  
  Enjoy it :)
  
  
• Revenge Is So Sweet!
  By A38QL6IS1Q6BUM on 2009-09-01
  Loved it, great foreshadowing, nice plot lines, and revenge was sweet. I had expected a different motivation from the main character, but seeing the one couples lost son was enough. I only did not catch it. I think the ending was poetic. The director left the impression that both were parting ways, yet they seemed to be leaving at the same time. Hmm, what was in their minds?
  
  
• The Bank
  By A2Y0Q0ITJLCN4P on 2009-08-31
  Very good movie! The principle characters were very believable and made for some thoughtful conjecture as to the reality of how banks do business.
  
  
• Morality tale lacks credibility
  By A3SKGQSU29ZV80 on 2003-07-21
  The Bank is an Australian film about the greed and [dishonesty] of banks. Anthony Lapaglia (who is actually Australian but speaks in this film with an American accent) plays Simon O'Reilly, the head honcho of a major bank who behaves like a cross between Wall Street's Gordon Gekko and Robert Deniro in one of his gangster roles. Indeed, O'Reilly is the only character in the film who routinely swears and is rude to everyone (with the exception of his American wife, whose one line contains a vulgar phrase). Perhaps this is the (occasionally justified, to be fair) Australian stereotype of Americans. I'm afraid, however, that much of what this film knows about Americans and about financial markets was learned only from other movies, especially Wall Street. Simon hires mathematical genius Jim Doyle (played rather blandly by David Wenham) who may have figured out a system to predict the stock market. This system has something to do with fractals and chaos theory; probably not valid, but this is the least of the films weaknesses. There is a parallel plot, awkwardly handled, about a couple whose business was foreclosed by the same bank. After an official hands the couple's young son a summons, the boy drowns in an accident. Although this tragedy is only very indirectly connected to the bank, the film attempts to use this as a device to drive home the heavy-handed point that greed at high levels creates misery for ordinary people. Oddly enough, I found The Bank both confusing and predictable. The connection between the two plot lines is not clear till very late in the film and then they are brought together in a series of scenes that are alternately confusing and simply unbelievable. There is one silly melodramatic scene involving guns. The final twist was supposed to be a surprise, but it was really the only place the script had to go. Without giving anything away, I can say that one of the main characters' actions at the end make much of his earlier behavior completely irrational. The Bank has a few good scenes; there are some interesting discussions involving finance and mathematics. To ask for accuracy on these matters would be asking too much (after all, as far as we know no one has yet found a foolproof way to beat the stock market), but there are too many other things in the film that are not plausible. The ending, for example, is extremely naïve and is more suited for a comedy where realism is not important. At one point in the film someone says "I just hate banks." I'm afraid this was the primary motivation for making this film. This would be fine if they were able to back it up with a credible story, but in my opinion they didn't pull it off here.
  
  
• The Bank Rocks!
  By A1VQGYGA8G4SKN on 2009-09-05
  This was a great movie with a really good twist at the end. LOVED IT!
  
  
• ¨*:·.·:*¨¨*:·..·:*·:*¨¨*:·..·:*¨BLOODY BRILLIANT¨*:·. ·:*¨¨*:·..·:*·:*¨¨*:·..·:*¨
  By A2NEU5TXDDOUM6 on 2006-07-10
  Thoroughly entertaining from beginning to end. Has it all....suspense, horror, drama, comedy (a tad), excitement...PLUS I absolutely LOVE what the character Doyle (Wenhem) is all about and I'm certain you will too as long as you're not a big wig running a bank somewhere out there in the disgustingly, greedy world that banks exist in. I love A. La Paglia and would also love to have babies with him, but I hated him in this movie simply for the role he played. This is a unique movie and yes it is Australian ( I can't believe an Amazon reviewer in the USA bitched about it simply b/c they couldn't understand the "heavy australian accent" and whinged that it didn't have subtitles. Unless you are a complete and utter pea brain there is no possible way you cannot understand the "Australian language". 5 stars for brilliance, excellence, uniqueness, etc....etc...
  
  
• Solid thriller...but--
  By A3MLO4GAD2O9DL on 2005-09-01
  This has all the makings of a great noir thriller. Plot incorporates characters driven by revenge and greed--very good. Acting--very good. Intelligence level--very good. Well, the intelligence level is very good UNTIL...
  
  ...the very last scene, right before the credits roll. Without giving anything away, if the climactic event has occurred, the sight of somebody being surprised by their current holdings is completely ludicrous. This very last scene totally ruined the entire film.
  
  This has to do with banking, MEGA-banking, and corporate greed, and what corporate greed will do. One of the twists is that it's set in Australia, which makes it kind of interesting and that everybody therefore has an Australian accent except for the bank CEO played by Anthony LaPaglia who, although Australian, sounds better with an American accent! (which in fact is what he uses in the film). So one has to assume that the bank hired an American CEO. Not a stretch.
  
  The guy is ultra slimy--full of greed and cruelty. We might be tempted to say this is a cliche, if it were not for the fact that this is completely true. (Examples include Enron, Martha Stewart, and the pharmaceutical companies of America who, at the time of this writing, September 2005, are being sued in the state of California by none other than the Attorney General of California, Charles Lockyer).
  
  Enter Jim Doyle, a mathematical genius who promises Mr. CEO billions of dollars based on Doyle's devising of a complex formula predicting market behavior. CEO hooked, Doyle recruited, formula tested.
  
  So far, so good. Then things get ugly. Local businessman beginning to go under, served a summons to appear in court for foreclosure by same bank, young son drowns, complications.
  
  Is Jim Doyle who he says he is? How will his new girlfriend fit into the picture?
  
  The plot moves the film along like it should--very good pacing. The events escalate and we have some real suspense. Still so far, so good. Things culminate. Still very good.
  
  Then we get the last scene which blows it all to hell. Too bad.
  
  Without the very last scene, I would easily have given this four stars.
  
  

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