3 Short Paragraphs (Or Not): Bank of Dave

2023, Chris Foggin (This is Christmas) -- Netflix

I feel we watch a lot of British "feel-good" movies, and yet not enough to have created a tag. I am sure I could (not so) easily go back, add the tag, and make it a long list. Usually there are underdogs trying to accomplish something, often they biopics, sometimes they are even romcoms. But usually they are unlikely people we just end up feeling the need to root for. In the back of my brain, the best example of the genre was a 1998 movie called Little Voice but to be fair, I haven't seen the movie since then. I think it might have been one of those sharing moments between Marmy and me.

Dave Fishwick was a real guy, who started a bank in the UK -- well, technically he got a consumer credit license and opened a "peer to peer lending model" establishment, but that's splitting hairs. The movie sells the grander idea of "the first bank in the UK in a 150 years". But Dave, the guy, was real, and he owned a mini-bus business, a quite successful one at that, and he was known for helping out people in his community with loans. And the one day he decided to make it successful.

Dave (Rory Kinnear, Years and Years) is almost a secondary character in the movie, with Hugh (Joel Fry, Yesterday) his lawyer playing the leading role, the London solicitor who is sent up north to take Dave's money, guide him through the process, which everyone, including Dave, expects to fail. At first Hugh is a fish(wick) out of water (#groan), his introduction to Burnley (north of Manchester) via an incomprehensible accent, but soon he comes to love the sincere, warm love of community the place, and Dave's friends, has. 

But how to make him a bank? First he has to take on High Street, including members of the banking establishment who want to end this upstart's attempts to nose in on their world. This is early 2000s, after the economic collapse, and people don't like banks or bankers, so they make a good Bad Guy. They make a weak attempt to have Dave branded a felon, which would invalidate him from getting a license, but they fail through the usual impassioned speech in the courtroom. The next hurdle is securing £10,000,000 required reserve amount, which was accomplished through a rock concert and a handful of benevolent investors, including Hugh himself. And thus Burnley Savings & Loans was opened.

The sweet side story is Hugh growing affection for Burnley and Dave's niece Alex (Phoebe Dynevor, Bridgerton), a local doctor also going up against "the man" by trying to secure funds for a local walk-in clinic. She expects to be her uncle's first customer. But he does not trust London lawyers, until Hugh's unassuming and gentle demeanour wears her down.

All in all the movie served up all the expected feel-good notes, with a good amount of comedy, some quirky characters, some nefarious villains to hate on, and a rousing climax which included a concert by Def Lepppard, yes the real band. No, that did not happen in real life, but I sort of envision a non-purple-suit elevator pitch from the real Dave himself, "Hey, can we get Def Leppard in the movie? I know a guy who knows a guy who knows the band !!"

Uh, there is a tag. Time to start retconning the posts.