bank

THE BANK:

Starring David Wenham, Anthony Lapaglia, Sibylla Budd, Steve Rodgers and Mandy McElhinney. Rated M:

At time of writing, in this particular week of death and destruction, with the financial collapse of Ansett and the literal collapse of the World Trade Center, a movie that condones the deliberate destruction of a bank takes on an added poignancy.

Big business and globalisation increasingly rile the hackles of a modern society where the average person in the street increasingly feels disenfranchised by the omnipotence of financial giants and the faceless men who steer these care free, care less juggernauts.

To step down for a few minutes and attempt to review this movie divorced from a personal soapbox would be to deny the very emotions the producers of this movie were counting on to make their plot work.

We all hate banks. That’s no secret. The TV reminds us daily. So when a small-town hero comes along with the will and the way to hurt a big city bank, we are right there in his corner mopping his sweaty brow.

When CentaBank forecloses on its loan to Wayne and Diane Davis, an unscrupulous bailiff serves the papers to their young son who, with a child’s naiveté, drowns himself rather than face his parents.

The Davis’ loss is but one human tragedy played out in the Aussie bush when corporate giants trample over personal hardships.

Jim Doyle has a similar tale. Foreclosure on his family’s farm sees Jim’s father driven to hang himself from a barn roof when Jim was just a boy.

Armed with two very different weapons, two men, variously bent on justice and revenge, cross paths in a race against time to deliver a point.

On the one hand, small-business operator, Wayne Davis, blinded by rage at the failure of a system to deliver justice, resolves to deliver justice at the point of a gun.

On the other, a mathematical genius, develops a complex formula for justice -- a dish best served cold.

The Bank unapologetically cashes in on an almost universal public loathing of the modern bank and deposits an intriguing plot, backed by unassuming, wholesome acting, to deliver a very satisfying tale.

Check out the official The Bank website