Bank of Dave 2: The Loan Ranger must be one of the most unnecessary movies since at least Solo: A Star Wars Story. The first film, called Bank of Dave, told the very loosely true story of Dave Fishwick, a British man who fought to start a bank to help out his neighbors in his hometown of Burnley, in northern England. That one was clunky and as predictable as anything you can imagine, but it had a kind of irresistible charm, as Dave took on the enormous banks that helped cause the 2008 financial crisis, and everyone around him learned a little something about compassion and tenacity. Despite myself, the movie even gave me a few chills and almost some tears.
In this new one, Dave learns about how payday lenders are wreaking havoc on vulnerable people and he decides to take them on, too. As with the first movie, we get right down to business—within the first couple of minutes, the premise has already been outlined and we’re off and running, which feels abrupt, but also Dave isn’t the sort to just sit around and do nothing. Dave is played by Rory Kinnear, and apologies to Mr. Kinnear, but he has the face of a smarmy villain. Wouldn’t you know it, though, the man is an actor, and he’s easily believable as a person who has an idea to help people and simply won’t let it go. And both films are smart about where they spend their time, as a lot of each story is not about Dave, but about people who enter his orbit who need a little bit of personal development and who find it while helping Dave with his cause.
I keep mentioning both films because they each hit almost the exact the same beats. And they have the same flaws, too, which, on paper, aren’t small. Some of the dialogue is more or less “insert brief exposition here.” But what can I say, somehow these Dave movies still work, maybe because they just make us feel good about actually helping people and sticking it to the fat cats while we’re at it. So, yeah, maybe this one isn’t completelyunnecessary after all.
Bank of Dave 2: The Loan Ranger is on VOD March 13th.
