Recently on television, I had seen a program on the illegal activities of con artists, particularly those involved in get-rick-quick telephone scams. Some of these people operate inside rented offices or apartments and con people out of their hard-earned money, including retired folks who are depending on their savings to survive. The purpose is to obtain any and all money and the key is persuasion. That is the focus of "Boiler Room," which focuses on such con artists, and how they can persuade anyone to sell on fictitious stock options.
Seth (Giovanni Ribisi) is one of these guys. A former casino operator in his own apartment, he quits trying to make amends to please his father, who is disconcerted with the life his son lead. Apparently, Seth lied to his family that he was attending college. All along he had been running an illegal casino making wads of cash. Then he catches wind of a Long Island, N.Y. stock company, J.T. Marlin, that can make anyone into a millionaire as long as they have to drive to work their butts off. Seth sees this as an attempt to please his father whom he never seems to please.
Enter J.T. Marlin where the leader of the pack (Ben Affleck) convinces these new recruits that they can become millionaires and fulfill all their dreams as long as they make money for their firm. It is about persistence to make the sale on stock options ("Anyone who tells you that money is the root of all evil doesn't have it.") The Affleck character and the scene itself is a direct hark back to Alec Baldwin's powerful cameo in "Glengarry Glen Ross" where he tried to persuade the fellow salesmen to sell like if it was dependent on their lives. Only Affleck seems to come up short in the delivery, if only because Baldwin did it better.
Seth is intrigued by this firm and the prospect of becoming rich, and thus becomes a full-fledged professional stock broker. He becomes so damn good that he no longer needs his resentful boss, Greg (Nicky Katt). Seth also becomes involved with Greg's former flame, Abby (Nia Long), a beautiful secretary who makes $80,000 a year and supports her sick mother. Naturally, after all the success and wealth, things start to go downhill. Seth realizes he may be immersed in a fake firm, a "boiler room" or brokerage chop shop, that sells stock options on nonexistent companies. How will his dad feel about this?
"Boiler Room" is "Wall Street" with a dash of "Glengarry Glen Ross" thrown into the mix and it has a great cast of up and coming actors, including Ribisi's sad-eyed, clownish-looking Seth and Vin Diesel's hoarse-voiced Chris, one of the big moneymakers for the firm. I think the film tries a little too hard to seem hip, and the references to the aforementioned films by Oliver Stone and David Mamet respectively clue us into how mediocre and cliched the whole franchise is. Every moment can be predicted with precision, and we know Seth will eventually realize his mistakes and seek forgiveness from his dad. Some of these very scenes are extremely well-written, particularly those involving Seth's father (Ron Rifkin - one of my favorite character actors), a judge who doesn't want his career tarnished by his son's foolhardy schemes. Rifkin has a great line: "Relationship? What relationship? Relationships are your mother's shtick. I am your father."
If "Boiler Room" dealt with Seth's complex relationship with his father and his own inner struggle between deception and truth, we might have had a real winner here. As it is, the film is bogged down with far too many plotholes, including Seth's relationship with Abby that becomes fraught with complications involving the FBI. And there are later scenes between Seth and his father and another potential scheme that stretch credibility. I will say that "Boiler Room" is very entertaining and informative in its first hour, but it is the anticlimactic finish that makes the whole affair seem like a near-miss.
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