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It is well known that movies that are adapted from true stories tend to exaggerate and ‘Hollywoodise’ things. I find this perfectly acceptable; as a film maker you needs key events to engage the audience, create suspense and offer a satisfying ending and if your existing plot doesn’t give you these then you simply need to add them.

The art in this is in doing it in such a way that is not too obvious. Recent British films like The Duke and The Phantom of the Open both managed this well and staying in the same vein but going back a bit, so did Eddie the Eagle. It seems that Bank of Dave, with its quirky regional English central character and it’s similar sense of little guy against the odds crusading optimism, wants to be in spoken about alongside these other movies. Unfortunately, charming as it is though, it just doesn’t manage this key trick in the same way.

It clearly knows this too because before it starts it says it is based on a true story but then throws in a cheeky ‘mostly’. While proudly owning the conspicuous excesses worked for Quentin Tarantino though, where viewers thrilled in seeing certain people who died in real life not die and others who didn’t do, here the narrative leaps don’t nail the landing.

I’m not going to tell you the most unforgivably unbelievable part of this film because it comes at the end and I don’t want to spoil this as you do get swept along with it. Instead I will draw out some other aspects I found quite clumsy. The story is about Dave Fishwick, a wealthy Lancashire businessman who around a decade ago applied to open a small bank that would enable him to benefit the local community with financial support and altruistic activity. In this version he is assisted by Hugh, a down on his heels (of course he’s down on his heels) young lawyer from London (of course he’s from London), and together they fight against the corrupt banking establishment that conspires to stop them (of course the banking establishment are corrupt and of course they conspire to stop them). The cliched triumph over adversity leanings around all of this are almost de rigueur, this I can go with. The love story with Dave’s niece though, and the lawyer rethinking his whole life on seeing how much better everything is up north? This was a bit much.

It is not the idea that things can be better in the North of England, of course I don’t take issue with that, but actually the way they present the North/South contrast is laid on pretty thick too. London is presented as all cold and soulless whereas Burnley is one none stop parade of social gatherings and friendly encounters (apart from with the comedy grumpy Northerner that Hugh meets when he first arrives – of course). Seriously it is like London is Blade Runner LA and Burnley is Hobbiton. Apparently if you go to a bar in the former it’ll be empty except for a woman called Hen who drinks too much Chardonnay and starts crying on you, but visit a pub in the latter and it is full of people, warmly raising pints and bursting into enthusiastic group singalongs. I have dear friends all over the UK and have enjoyed travelling this Isle of Wonder myself and I have to say that neither of these depictions are really very realistic.

In the end the question has to be whether real events are enough to sustain and justify a movie adaptation without awkward elaboration. There is no doubt that what the real Dave Fishwick and his lending company (in reality not actually a bank) have done for the people in his area is wonderful, lending over £30 million to people in need and donating all the profits to charity, but based on this there isn’t quite enough here to comfortably support a feature film.

In saying all of this I do feel a little churlish though. Bank of Dave is still a very enjoyable movie, it is quite sweet and the two leads, Rory Kinnear as Dave and Joel Fry as Hugh, are highly endearing. Fry in particular makes a nice move from the comedy support roles he is best known for to romantic hero (In the Earth remains his best performance). Phoebe Dynevor is also good despite her character being a heavy trope and Angus Wright as Hugh’s boss is a delight too. I may have reservations but I do recommended this as something easy to watch of a quiet evening. I may not believe things happened anything like this, but I do still believe this is a thing anyone will like.