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‘Boiler’ can’t sustain heat With the Dow Jones industrial average doing what it has been doing for the past few years, it should come as no surprise that Hollywood has just made a film about the stock market. The only surprise may be that it’s taken this long for somebody to jump at the opportunity to capitalize on the situation on Wall Street. Look no further than first-time director Ben Young’s new film "Boiler Room," a Generation X brokerage drama about sleaze, greed and the almighty buck (you don’t know the true meaning of this phrase until you see this movie).
At the firm, Seth, along with 15 other young men, is given a most disgusting speech from Jim Young (Ben Affleck) about how the firm works and how much money they all will make. It is here that we first find out that JT Marlin is not your typical brokerage house. Young tells the recruits that "Anybody that tells someone that money is the root of all evil doesn’t have any." The entire philosophy of the place is summed up right there. Each new member is guaranteed to make one million dollars within three years. Wow, Seth thinks, this is the place to be, no matter what! Of course, there is more to this utopia of a firm than meets the eye, and "no matter what" turns out to be more than he bargains for. Nearly everyone working at JT Marlin is an utterly repulsive and amoral hedonist. They search out fights in bars, insult and tear down anyone not in tune with their lifestyle and essentially live for one reason: to make as much money as possible. For most of the film, Seth fits in perfectly with his new coworkers. He just does what they tell him to, in the process becoming more and more like them. What he eventually finds out after losing a client his life savings of $50,000 is that JT Marlin is running an illegal sham. (Who knew?) Instead of selling stocks to customers and taking the maximum amount of commission allowed by the SEC, they pedal shares in companies which do not exist and take about 20 percent for their commission, four times the legal sum. "Boiler Room" is in no uncertain terms a "Wall Street" for this generation. In both films there is the ambitious young kid who becomes a major player in an investment firm led by a man (men, in this case) who personify qualities like greed and ruthlessness. The new business seems on the up and up, life is great for a while, discoveries are made about the true nature of the new job, everything falls apart, and the young guy learns his lesson. "Boiler Room" employs this same formula with a few conventional twists, some rapid-fire editing and lots of loud, surprisingly effective rap music. Seth grows a conscience after squandering his client’s $50,000, and when the Feds come calling with proof of Seth’s wrongdoings at JT Marlin, he agrees to testify against the company in exchange for total immunity. Over the course of the last third of the film, Seth’s relationship with his father Marty begins to take on more importance. We learn that all Seth ever wanted to do was make Marty proud of him. This, and not the money and prestige, is Seth’s reason for running the casino and taking the job at JT Marlin. That the illegality of both these pursuits would somehow let his father down seems to escape Seth; rather, he believes that Marty will love him because he is good at what he does. Marty, of course, does not communicate well with his son. In another unexpected turn, he also has trouble showing emotion. I found this strain of the plot to be the weakest aspect of the picture. Not only is it a typical and tired example of a father-son relationship, we don’t really find out that Seth’s driving force is his desire to please his pop until the last segment of the film. To me, it felt like the filmmakers were saying, "Oh, by the way, before you forget, this is the real reason for Seth’s unbelievably bad choices throughout his life. Now look how important their relationship is to them both." They should have made the interactions between the two more than what they appear to be in most of the film: ordinary arguments between a father and son. Fortunately, "Boiler Room" combats its conventional plot and inconsistent storytelling with excellent casting, some bitingly humorous dialogue and, most of all, a number of exciting scenes in the boiler room itself, the center of attention at JT Marlin where all the trading takes place. With its share of yellow Ferraris, fast-paced action, and constant barrage of verbal ammunition, this is not a boring film. If you can get beyond (or at least ignore) its flaws, "Boiler Room" is a hard-hitting investment drama that shows just how unprofitable the quest for wealth can be. Grade: B- |
"Boiler
Room" is the story of Seth Davis, played by Giovanni Ribisi,
a young college dropout who runs a casino from his basement.
Seth’s main problem is not his lack of a real job but his
inability to please his father Marty, an important-looking New
York judge played by Ron Rifkin. In Seth’s eyes, his father is
disappointed in him no matter what he does with his life. Of
course, if your son dropped out of school and started running an
illegal casino, wouldn’t you be a bit upset? Fora some reason,
Seth doesn’t get this. One night, a friend of Seth’s brings
a young man looking to blow some cash in the casino. This is
Greg Weinstein (Nikky Katt), a broker from a small firm on Long
Island called JT Marlin. Taking a liking to Seth, but realizing
that he cannot maintain this sort of underground business
forever, Greg tells him to come apply for a job at his brokerage
house.