“The Banker” snatches an obscure figure from history with a very mixed effect. Placed largely before the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it tells the story of an African-American entrepreneur, Bernard S. Garrett, as he tackles racism in real estate and banking. It’s an appealing configuration of David and Goliath that uses laughter, white racism and black justice to gently sell a story of inequality, heroic capitalism and heartbreaking math. (It is based on actual events which, according to legal records, may be more complicated.)
Anthony Mackie leads the charm offensive as Bernard, a Texas-born stranger. Bernard has big plans when he and his wife, Eunice (Nia Long), move their little family to Los Angeles. We are in 1954 and for Bernard, the City of Angels seems to be a great opportunity, despite its discriminatory housing practices. With his usual calm, he soon walks through its pleasantly green and racially segregated streets, trying and failing to buy reasonably priced properties, then trying and failing to get loans for the more expensive ones.
The story begins to buzz once Bernard meets Joe Morris (Samuel L. Jackson, obviously having fun). A businessman with deep pockets and a joint called the Plantation Club, Joe enters a whirlwind of jazz and smoke amidst an abundance of women. It makes a useful contrast with buttoned Bernard, who finds him vulgar. But Joe is a relief – funny, prickly, human – and the film could use more of him. Naturally, men join forces. And, pushing and dodging, they carry out Bernard’s plan to buy, renovate and rent houses in the white areas to the city’s growing black middle class.
The director, George Nolfi, who wrote the screenplay with several others, tries to complete the broader socio-political picture while keeping the story rooted in the staff. It’s difficult, especially when Nolfi tries to demonstrate that Bernard is a revolutionary figure when he presents himself mainly as an interested entrepreneur with a policy that resembles film replicas. However, Nolfi continues to swing in this direction, dramatically insisting on Bernard’s efforts as Eunice smiles and gives speeches of pep. It is difficult not to take root for them, even if they are obvious and underdeveloped, charged with a dialogue which too often seems programmatic rather than embodied.
Bernard’s dreams and political stakes spread as soon as he decides to take charge of the bank. With an impatient and inexperienced white colleague, Matt Steiner (Nicholas Hoult, all big eyes, golly gee and aw shucks), Bernard and Joe conceive an elaborate subterfuge to buy a bank building, thus becoming the owners of the same men who refuse loans . to black customers. To get there, they turn Matt in their foreheads. By chasing Henry Higgins, they teach him how to handle the wealthy whites, an instruction that stretches from the golf course to the dinner table. Joe shows Matt how to get started. Eunice teaches her about etiquette and seafood.
The scenes in Matt’s education are entertaining and overly thankless, characterized by rapid editing and widely deployed comedy. The metamorphosis is prolonged – it takes too long for Matt to stumble over skill, body and fairway flight – but it also captures the performance aspect of the race. What keeps these interactions with you is not their laughter, but the vision of African Americans patiently teaching life lessons to a white naive. Bernard, Joe and Eunice don’t just teach Matt how to play, dress and eat. They also touchingly explain how to navigate white power, something they have had to do all their lives.
This lesson persists as the story returns to Texas, the subterfuge continues, and business becomes larger and much more blurred. What does not change is Bernard, whose inner life remains opaque, even as complications increase and he frankly tells the truth to power. Rather, there remains a beautiful idea of a character, a mystery that the film never manages to unravel. This may explain why Nolfi too often returns to Matt, who gets married, settles down, tests his own ambitions and finally helps to blur the focus of the story and blunt his messages. For a film about the struggles of a black man in America, “The Banker” spends a lot of time on a false white forehead.
The banker
Classified PG-13 for institutional racism. Duration: 2 hours.