That’s all to say, don’t let it dissuade you from
giving this solid film a chance when it hits AppleTV
Plus on Friday. Directed by George Nolfi (“The
Adjustment Bureau”), “The Banker” is a fairly
traditional biopic with a civil rights bent and some
caper elements. With lush period costuming and
a terrific cast, including Mackie, Samuel L. Jackson
as his business partner Joe Morris, Nia Long as
Bernard’s wife Eunice and Nicholas Hoult, it might
just be the perfect easy watch for anyone looking
for fresh streaming content.
We’re introduced to Bernard as a precocious
youngster living in 1930s Texas. He’s ambitious
and self-taught and eavesdrops on the men
whose shoes he’s shining to learn some business
acumen. His father commends his intellect but
advises him to dream smaller.
The film then cuts to 1954 Los Angeles where
Bernard, always bedecked in a well-fitted suit,
goes on the hunt for investment properties. “No”
is a word he hears often, until he meets Patrick
Barker, an Irish property owner played by Colm
Meaney, who sees potential in Bernard’s strategy
of buying properties in white neighborhoods
that are adjacent to black neighborhoods and
gives him a chance.
They start doing business together, but there’s a
catch: Although Bernard has all the good ideas,
he’s forced to stay in the shadows of every deal
knowing that his skin color would be a deal-
breaker for many in 1950s Los Angeles. When
his partnership with Patrick comes to an end, he
and Joe Morris have to essentially Eliza Doolittle
a white working class youngster (Hoult’s Matt
Steiner) — who barely knows how to add —
to be the face of their real estate empire.