The Bank - Il nemico pubblico n° 1

Greed is at the core of this film. It's incredible how money can corrupt people to the point that it will make them do things that ultimately, they will live to regret.

It was a surprise to see this Australian film that only played a couple of weeks in New York. It's a much better picture than some of the very highly regarded ones that came out just about the same time and are still around, while this one went back to Australia, probably.

The director, Robert Connelly presents us with a story that's very plausible. In it, the greedy banker, played with fine assurance by Anthony LaPaglia, wants to be able to get rich with a scheme that is presented to him by the mysterious David Wenham.

Aside from some of the technical aspects of the financial world, it is very entertaining and very nicely acted by all the actors in it.

Go and rent The Bank!

This movie was a great surprise for me. The contrast between LaPaglia and Wenham is very believable. LaPaglia's Simon in his expensive suits and $100 haircut in stark contrast to Wenham's Jim in a leather jacket and unkempt hair. I found myself talking to the characters, from calling Simon (LaPaglia) a dirty bastard, to rolling my eyes at Jim (Wenham) and calling him a sell-out. The Bank really held my "interest" and gave a nice "payoff" in the end with a great twist.

A great movie if you like the David and Goliath-type of movie.

This story is along the lines of 'Runaway Jury'. Old injustices take

center stage in the mind of the involved and revenge is the goal.

Well done movie. A refreshing change from the 'shoot'em up'

endless car chases and bullets flying everywhere fare and

buildings being blown to smithereens. Well acted, some intrigue

and the vocabulary was not offensive for the most part. I Highly

recommend this movie to anyone wanting to be entertained by a

solid story line, good acting by a lot of unknowns, to me anyhow. I

still haven't figured out Sibylla Budd's character, very enigmatic. It

was filmed in Australia and Italy according to the Internet Movie

Data Base.

A large corporate bank takes on a young Mathematics PHD boffin who insists that with funds he can fully develop a theory that predicts the movements of the stock market.

Not a bad watch at all, fine acting, a pretty good story and nice cinematography bring together a thoroughly credible piece.

The bank here is the archetypal 'unelected private tyranny' that exist in our times, where they can bully governments, cross borders and refute any kind of ethical principles in the name of greed and profit.

The head of the evil organisation is played very well by Anthony LaPaglia who is utterly convincing and puts in the best performance of the film. In addition, the lead David Wenham is also fairly good and his beautiful love interest Sibylla Budd is not bad either.

I quite enjoyed this movie, each scene looked like a lot of effort had been put into setting it up and directing the actors. The overall feel of the film was very effective for the subject matter but it was missing something that would make it truly memorable and a great film. The ending was not bad but overall the film was just not substantial enough

Worth a watch

This is an Australian suspense thriller about a mathematician, Jim Doyle, who develops a new theory based on chaos analysis that will enable a user to predict just about anything. A senior banking executive, Simon O'Reilly, gets a hold of the news and hires Jim to work for them, to develop a system that will predict financial markets.

Jim is altruistic - he wants to predict market collapses so that regular people can react in time. Simon sees a way to get rich. Simon is also one of those Gordan Gecko types who sees himself as part of the new feudal lords of capitalism, a member of the elite whose duty he sees as crushing the opposition.

This is a pretty clever film and I want to be careful not to give away the ending. You can sort of see it coming, but the actor playing Jim, David Wenham, is so under control that he doesn't give away a thing. You might recognize Wenham from his role as Faramir, Boromir's brother in the second installment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. His acting makes this film succeed.

Anthony LaPaglia plays the ruthless banker, Simon, and he manages to make himself hateful for the audience. Sibylla Budd also plays the love interest of Jim very well (she has a deliciously sly smile).

Short on elaborate production values, but the story and the acting make this film exciting and one I'd recommend.