My Review of "Bank of Dave"

Bank of Dave is a feel good story based on a true story that came out in 2023. I didn't hear much about this movie so it came out of nowhere. The thing that gravitated me towards it was the story premise. It's basically a David versus Goliath story that's based on real life events. That sounds like a recipe for success, at least it is for me when it comes to entertainment.

The movie starts off with the introduction of Dave. He's a really well liked person in his community because he cares a lot about his community. Over the years he's helped out numerous people in the community when the economy had hit a huge slump.

This references the big stock market crash of 2008. So many people were out of work yet the banks couldn't provide them loans to get them back on their feet. These banks weren't willing to risk loaning money to these people but yet they were offered billions of dollars in bail out money. All the while their CEOs were getting millions of dollars in bonuses. Nothing made sense.

Dave did what he thought was right. He loaned everyone the money they needed to help his small community of Burnley. Surprisingly enough, all of the individuals that he loaned money to paid him back in full. It got them all to think bigger. What if Dave was to invest the community money and all profits of the investments would go to building things for the community like hospitals and schools. It was an idea that basically kickstarts this whole movie.

I thought Dave would be the main character in this case but it's really Hugh. You see they need a lawyer to get everything done and Hugh is the lawyer from London to help them out. He soon becomes the main character as he learns there's more to the small city of Burnley than he perceives.

There are some elements in this movie that may feel very propaganda like but they kind of help the story. This movie is very much against the greed of the bankers and the coldness of corporate greed. Some may take this as somewhat of a socialist push. In a way it is but they did it in a pretty fun way and I find a lot of movies push this same agenda.

To push this issue they really make the community seem like a whole bunch of angels and the corporate group to be evil dictators. Again it helps out with the story but it's such a black and white situation where you have obvious good versus evil. It puts this in the feel good movie territory. You have obvious factions but it also makes our side character pretty one dimensional.

The only person we see some sort of metamorphosis is Hugh and even his progression is somewhat jarring. He gets these eureka moments that make him realize what's good and what's bad when it's plain to see how obvious everything is. I found it kind of comical when they did a few dream sequences to really hammer the point to us as the audience.

Though the movie has a cheery UK feel to it. That UK charm is infectious and I can't help but feel happy when I see it on the screen. That charm isn't for everyone though. Some people just won't get it and this movie probably isn't the type of movie for you.

Overall, I had fun with this one. There are obviously some glaring issues with the movie but for the most part it works. The pacing is a bit off at points and is quite predictable but this movie feels more like a hallmark movie than anything. I have to give it a 6.5 out of 10 because it still made me feel good that this actually happened in real life.