Breaking the Bank

In this combination of romantic farce and economic chicanery, Kelsey Grammer (a long way from the brilliance of Frasier) dons a plummy English accent to play the bumbling aristocratic head of a long-established London bank, whose self-inflicted travails wreck his life and his marriage. Supposedly, the gag is that he's such a bumbling old fool he's only been appointed chief to stop him causing any harm. However, despite Grammer's admittedly game efforts, it's still a bit of a stretch for audiences to warm to a sympathetic portrayal of a high-level financier post-global crash. Tamsin Greig gives the proceedings a lift as the snippy spouse who can't forgive him for bankrupting her family's firm, but as events leave Grammer out on the streets and scheming to restore his fortunes, the laborious plotting and very moderate laughter quotient compare rather poorly to the film's comedy model, Trading Places. Lots of lovely helicopter shots of the City of London, yet nowhere near enough fun.