The Bank (2001 film)
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''The Bank'' is a 2001
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
n thriller/
drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...
directed by
Robert Connolly Robert Connolly (born 1967) is an Australian film director, producer and screenwriter based in Melbourne, Victoria. He is best known as the director and writer of the feature films '' Balibo'', ''Three Dollars'' and '' The Bank'', and the produce ...
and starring
David Wenham David Wenham (born 21 September 1965) is an Australian actor who has appeared in film, television and theatre. He is known for his roles as Faramir in ''The Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy, Friar Carl in ''Van Helsing'', Dilios in ''300'' and ...
and
Anthony LaPaglia Anthony LaPaglia (, ; born 31 January 1959) is an Australian actor. He is best known for his role as Jack Malone in the television drama ''Without a Trace'' (2002–2009), for which he received a Golden Globe Award in 2004. LaPaglia won a Prim ...
.


Synopsis

Jim Doyle (David Wenham) is a maverick
mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...
who has devised a formula to predict the fluctuations of the stock market. When he joins O'Reilly's fold, he must first prove his loyalty to the "
greed is good Greed (or avarice) is an uncontrolled longing for increase in the acquisition or use of material gain (be it food, money, land, or animate/inanimate possessions); or social value, such as status, or power. Greed has been identified as undes ...
" ethos.


Plot

The film opens with a group of elementary school children in 1977, who have a Victoria State Central Bank representative, Mr.Johnson, who give them lessons on saving and give them the chance to open their first checking account, and telling them that if they will put in any money for 25 years, at the end they will eventually set aside $727,000. In the present, the Centa Bank's board of directors orders
CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...
Simon O'Reily to find a way to increase profits. Then he discovers the work of a mathematician, Jim Doyle, whose software B.T.S.E., based on
fractal geometry In mathematics, a fractal is a geometric shape containing detailed structure at arbitrarily small scales, usually having a fractal dimension strictly exceeding the topological dimension. Many fractals appear similar at various scales, as illu ...
of
Benoit Mandelbrot Benoit B. Mandelbrot (20 November 1924 – 14 October 2010) was a Polish-born French-American mathematician and polymath with broad interests in the practical sciences, especially regarding what he labeled as "the art of roughness" of phy ...
makes it possible to predict stock market trends. Doyle is hired by O'Reily and supplied with the best
computer hardware Computer hardware includes the physical parts of a computer, such as the computer case, case, central processing unit (CPU), Random-access memory, random access memory (RAM), Computer monitor, monitor, Computer mouse, mouse, Computer keyboard, ...
. He befriends Vincent, who had advised O'Reily to hire him, and enters into a relationship with his colleague Michelle Roberts, who views O'Reily's business activities critically. Meanwhile, the couple Diane and Wayne Davis, who took out a loan in a foreign currency at the bank, become insolvent. The son of the couple is found dead after a meeting with the deliverer of the eviction notice. The Davises hire a lawyer, Stephen O'Connor, to sue the bank on the grounds that they were not informed about the risks of a loan in foreign currency. Invited by O'Reily to a party at his house, Jim takes Michelle, she insults the landlord and the relationship between her and Jim is broken, because he is hiding something and don't want to open up with her. O'Reily asks Jim to change his attitude to him and their business and ask him as a proof of loyalty to falsely state in court that he was present as an intern in the bank's loan counseling to the Davises and that Wayne Davis was sufficiently informed. That causes the Davises to lose their lawsuit. This also causes the final breakup between Jim and Michelle; the latter then decides to investigate Jim's past. Jim informs his boss that a
stock market crash A stock market crash is a sudden dramatic decline of stock In finance, stock (also capital stock) consists of all the shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided.Longman Business English Dictionary: "stock - ''especia ...
will soon occur. Michelle finds out in Jim's hometown that his real name is not Jim Doyle but Paul Jackson; the bank had terminated his father's credit, whereupon his father committed suicide. A man who watches Michelle on behalf of O'Reily learns the truth and warns O'Reily. O'Reily wants to stop the bank's stock sale in that moment, but Wayne Davis breaks into O'Reily's house to shoot him. O'Reily offers him two million dollars if Davis allows him to make a phone call. Wayne realizes that it would be a very important call for the bank, so he destroys the house's power-box to stop this important phone call, which is intended to warn the bank of Jim's plans, and leaves the estate. Stock prices initially perform as expected, but then they rise instead of falling. The bank goes bankrupt after losing $50 billion. Jim must leaves the country. He meets Michelle for the last time and tells her that the money has partly been lost forever and partly has been "redistribuited". Then ask to her to come after him before departure, which she refuses. The Davises find out from their bank statement at an ATM, to have $727,000 - a reference to the opening credits and possibly the ones that Jim mentioned - . They want to clarify the matter in the neighboring bank branch, but this is one of the numerous branches which were closed by order of O'Reily. They decide to keep the money.


Cast

*
David Wenham David Wenham (born 21 September 1965) is an Australian actor who has appeared in film, television and theatre. He is known for his roles as Faramir in ''The Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy, Friar Carl in ''Van Helsing'', Dilios in ''300'' and ...
as Jim Doyle/Paul Jackson *
Anthony LaPaglia Anthony LaPaglia (, ; born 31 January 1959) is an Australian actor. He is best known for his role as Jack Malone in the television drama ''Without a Trace'' (2002–2009), for which he received a Golden Globe Award in 2004. LaPaglia won a Prim ...
as Simon O'Reily *Steve Rodgers as Wayne Davis *Mandy McElhinney as Diane Davis *
Mitchell Butel Mitchell Patrick Butel (born 10 February 1970) is an Australian actor, singer, director and writer. He is best known for his work in theatre, including musical and opera productions. He has been the artistic director of the State Theatre Compa ...
as Stephen O'Connor *Sybilla Budd as Michelle Roberts *
Greg Stone Gregory "Greg" Jonathon Stone (born 23 June 1961 in Perth, Western Australia) is an Australian actor who has appeared in films, television and on stage. Early life Stone was born in Perth, Western Australia to parents Roy and Jennifer Stone ...
as Vincent * Kazuhiro Muroyama as Toshio * Stephen Leeder as Billy


Reception

''The Bank'' grossed $2,515,917 at the box office in Australia. Reviews of the film were mixed. Review aggregator
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
scored ''The Bank'' at 65% from 36 professional reviews (average rating 5.8/10), but 45% from 11 "top critic" reviews (average rating 5.5/10). Australian film review site Urban Cinefile's three reviewers summarized the film as "favourable". The ''New York Times'' concluded "As far-fetched as the movie is ... conveys an engaging zest for upper-crust mischief. The two stories come together in the hurtling final lap as Wayne confronts Simon in his country house while Jim puts his perfected program into operation. The upshot is a whopper of an ending that is as silly as it is satisfying." The ''New York Post'' gave the film 1.5/4 stars, stating "Despite a crafty premise and a clever kink in the tale that almost saves it, Connolly isn't dexterous enough to achieve the Hitchockian level of suspense the movie needs." The ''Los Angeles Times'' stated "Connolly might well have constructed a brisker, more exciting picture with more vivid and involving characters. As it is, the film takes too long to become truly compelling."


References


External links


The Bank at the National Film and Sound Archive
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The Bank
' at
AllMovie AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne. History AllMovie was founded by popular-cult ...
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The Bank
' at
Box Office Mojo Box Office Mojo is an American website that tracks box-office revenue in a systematic, algorithmic way. The site was founded in 1998 by Brandon Gray, and was bought in 2008 by IMDb, which itself is owned by Amazon. History Brandon Gray began ...
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''The Bank''
at
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
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The Bank
' at
Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

The Bank
at Oz Movies {{DEFAULTSORT:Bank, The APRA Award winners 2001 films Australian thriller drama films 2000s business films Films set in the 1970s Films shot in Melbourne Trading films 2001 thriller drama films Films scored by Alan John Films about mathematics 2001 drama films Films directed by Robert Connolly 2000s English-language films 2001 directorial debut films