The Bank (2001)

The Bank is a thriller about banking, corruption and alchemy.

Director:

Robert Connolly

Writers:

Brian Price (based on an original idea by), Mike Betar (based on an original idea by),

Stars:

David Wenham, Anthony LaPaglia, Sibylla Budd

9 wins & 21 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
David Wenham	...	Jim Doyle
Anthony LaPaglia	...	Simon O'Reily
Sibylla Budd	...	Michelle Roberts
Steve Rodgers	...	Wayne Davis
Mitchell Butel	...	Stephen
Mandy McElhinney	...	Diane Davis
Greg Stone	...	Vincent
Kazuhiro Muroyama	...	Toshio
Andrew Bayly	...	Mr. Johnson
Thomas Blackburne	...	Young Jim
Sharon Oppy	...	Teacher
Giles Rittman	...	School child
Dylan Foss	...	School child
Jessica Voglis	...	School child
Nicole Croker	...	School child

Storyline

The Bank is a thriller about banking, corruption and alchemy.

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Plot Keywords:

bank | bank manager | woman judge | blond man | children | 

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Taglines:

Public enemy number one: The Bank

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Genres:

Thriller | Drama

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Details

Official Sites:

Arenafilm Pty Ltd [au] Official website [us]

Country:

Australia Italy

Language:

English Japanese

Release Date:

6 September 2001 (Australia)

Also Known As:

A bank

Filming Locations:

Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Company Credits

Production Co:

Arenafilm, Showtime Australia

Technical Specs

Runtime:

104 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Some scenes were actually shot on the uppers floors of a major bank's corporate headquarters in Melbourne.

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Goofs

In the first scene at the school house, the date, Monday 20th March 1977, is written on the chalkboard. March 20, 1977 was a Sunday.

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Quotes

[Explaining to the bank's board why he wants to protect the shareholders]
Simon: They are our people. They are our "society". The public can take care of themselves.

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Connections

References Koyaanisqatsi (1982)

User Reviews

Technically superb, but some credibility problems

It's obvious that the screenwriter/director doesn't much like banks - and not many people do. You're only likely to get friendly attention from them when you have large sums of money to deposit, otherwise you are regarded as one the pests they have to put up with to get enough of the aforementioned type of customer - and they take sizeable fees from you for the privilege. The screenplay here is at its best when fuelling that perception, particularly by the attitudes of the bank's CEO, here portrayed (unnecessarily) as an American being pressured by the bank's directors to make higher profits (having closed most of the branches to achieve that wasn't enough). The guy is greed-driven and doesn't care about people. We get two cases of people's lives being ruined by the bank's loan foreclosures. So far so good. But some things don't quite square with reality - the mentality of bankers generally is not suited to gambling and a CEO isn't likely to test a mathematics whizzkid's theories with real money right at the start. It's improbable that a bank's board would agree to a gamble involving the bank's entire capital. Could the mathematics whizzkid really hide a previous identity so easily, and his real motivation as revealed at the end doesn't go with the ethical disinterest he shows throughout. But the film is very good on a technical level - the science presented (generally) suspends disbelief superbly, the characters are credible, acting passable and the editing is excellent. My acid test of a good film is whether it holds my attention throughout and this film certainly does that. 8 out of 10.