On the whole, I enjoyed "The Banker." I was impressed by the acting (Mackie and Jackson are very good) and the visuals of 1960's Los Angeles snd Texas are spot on from all I can discern. There were, however, a few nagging concerns I had that kept me from rating the movie higher.
First, Bernard Garrett arrives in LA at a time when paying a handyman for hourly work was $1.50 an hour... yet Garrett has somehow amassed $30,000-$40,000 (from a "business in Houston") with which to purchase his first property. How? Feel like this should have been fleshed out a little better. Same for Joe Morris. He's a club owner who also owns 18 properties, and is said to have come from a bit of money, but it's never explained. Garrett and. Morris then effortlessly buy over 100 buildings in LA very quickly, with no real story of how they're financing or buying any. It's a nice narrative, but it seems far-fetched in 1960s California. And as a lifelong golfer, I'm a bit miffed to see how Matt Steiner could learn the game so completely in a month without a ton of practice time, while he was simultaneously learning high finance (after a refresher course on long division). Or how Steiner was able to buy two houses in the Bahamas, undetected, on the eve of his testimony. Yeah, too many plot holes for me.
These points aside, it's an engaging film that could have been better.
First, Bernard Garrett arrives in LA at a time when paying a handyman for hourly work was $1.50 an hour... yet Garrett has somehow amassed $30,000-$40,000 (from a "business in Houston") with which to purchase his first property. How? Feel like this should have been fleshed out a little better. Same for Joe Morris. He's a club owner who also owns 18 properties, and is said to have come from a bit of money, but it's never explained. Garrett and. Morris then effortlessly buy over 100 buildings in LA very quickly, with no real story of how they're financing or buying any. It's a nice narrative, but it seems far-fetched in 1960s California. And as a lifelong golfer, I'm a bit miffed to see how Matt Steiner could learn the game so completely in a month without a ton of practice time, while he was simultaneously learning high finance (after a refresher course on long division). Or how Steiner was able to buy two houses in the Bahamas, undetected, on the eve of his testimony. Yeah, too many plot holes for me.
These points aside, it's an engaging film that could have been better.