Finding some divine deposits in the Bank of Dave

You always know what you're getting with the cuddly and cozy British comedy-drama - a bunch of brilliant aged actors, some hot young thing in tweed, the tiniest touch of dark humour and lots of lovely life lessons.

They are the intellectual marshmallows of films, often obvious, and always easy to watch. I never expect much from them, but even the most average film can have some personally profound impacts.

Take the Bank of Dave film, which I couldn't help watching when it sprouted up on my feed. Based on a true story - I haven't had the bollocks to see how much of it actually happened - it's about a businessman who actually cares about the community he lives in and tries to help people who have been less fortunate than he has, something rare enough to merit an entire movie of its own, apparently

It was standard Sunday afternoon film fluff, with Rory Kinnear turning on the charm in the title role and Def Leppard showing up for a rousing finale. It's the kind of film that you expect to go in one ear and out the other, and I couldn't stop thinking about the mild philosophical questions about community and empathy that were raised by the film.

I've been dwelling on the idea a lot lately - that in an age where our global leaders are a bunch of intellectual and moral fuckheads, that you only really have the power to change things in your own local community, and hope that all goodness will flow from there. And this movie was full of people like that, just doing the right thing because it's the right thing, and that's all they need.

And I can't stop thinking - why aren't I doing more? I've got my own family to raise, and I think I'm taking care of them pretty well, but I could do more. I should do more, even on the smallest levels, and I'm looking at doing some volunteer work this year, and just helping who I can.

It was meant to be a bit of light entertainment, another twee comedy-drama to pad out the afternoon, but how inconsequential can it be if it changes my life, in the tiniest of ways?