Like The Big Short earlier this year, this feature by the British director Vadim Jean (best known for his debut, Leon the Pig Farmer) attempts to generate comedy from the banking world and the ethically questionable people who run it – not a subject that would lend itself to hilarity, you would think. This crack at the subject is fluffier, more traditionally sitcom-like than Adam McKay’s docu-comedy about the 2009 savings and loan meltdown, but it’s diverting enough to pass muster, thanks to a seasoned cast. Kelsey Grammer plays bumbler Charles Bunbury who’s been running Tuftons, an investment bank that’s been in the family of his wife, Penelope (Tamsin Greig), for years. Charles is no match for the coup plotted by John Michael Higgins’ sharkish US investor, while Pearce Quigley is on hand as a sort of holy homeless fool, a trope that really ought to have been retired by now. The jokes are often wan, but the film trots along briskly and there are bits that tickle the odd rib, such as a cameo from Doon Mackichan as a posh phone prostitute.
