BOILER ROOM

US., 2000, 119 minutes, Colour.
Giovanni Ribisi, Vin Diesel, Ron Rifkin, Nia Long, Nikki Katt,Tom Everett Scott, Ben Affleck.
Directed by Ben Younger

Twenty-something Seth Davis (Giovanni Ribisi) is a college-drop out who lives in New York. He runs a very successful casino from his home. His father (Ron Rifkin) is a federal judge who berates Seth for his illegal activities, quitting school, and putting his judicial career in jeopardy. A gambling client brings a friend, Greg (Nicky Katt), to the casino one day. He is a stock broker at the firm of J.T. Marlin on Long Island, and he invites Seth to become a trainee there. Seth thinks he can make a quick buck and please his father, so he does.

Seth goes through the training period so he can take the “Series Seven” test that will make him a broker with an SEC (U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission) license. The trainees are told that they are there only to make money. Seth has to bring in forty accounts for his group leader, Greg, before he can start to earn the big money on his own. He becomes interested in Abbie (Nia Long), the receptionist and Greg’s former girl friend. Greg warns him away from Abbie, but they see each other anyway. Seth becomes friends with Chris (Vin Diesel), another senior broker.

Seth spends time with the partners and sees how ruthless they are. Meanwhile, he sees another worker shred documents and follows the owner, Michael (Tom Everett Scott), to another site where the company can move quickly if they are shut down. As Seth nears his quota, he talks Harry Reynard (Taylor Nichols), a young father about to buy a house, into spending all he has on worthless stock. The FBI approaches Abbie to get her to turn in evidence against the company. Meanwhile, Seth tries to get his father to buy that same worthless stock, but his father agrees to help his son not get caught instead. FBI agents have tapped the phones. They arrest Seth and then his father. They send Seth back to work for one day to get a copy of his computer hard drive. Seth gets Michael to sign off on selling Harry’s stock so he can make his money back, and Seth warns Chris that the FBI is coming. Seth drives away as the bust begins.

Boiler Room seemed to have become lost on its first release. Its cast was not so well known in 2000 even though some of them were just emerging as stars. The somewhat baby-faced Giovanni Ribisi had appeared in The Gift, The Other Sister, and rather unconvincingly as an action lead in Gone in Sixty Seconds. In succeeding years he fared better in cameo roles (Lost in Translation and Cold Mountain) than as a leading man (Heaven.) In Boiler Room, Rabisi has convincingly interpreted the role of a scheming moneymaker who desperately wants to please his father by succeeding in the business world.

Also appearing as a stockbroker is the now action star Vin Diesel, whose films include Saving Private Ryan, Pitch Black, The Fast and the Furious, XXX, and A Man Apart.

While Ben Affleck is the cast member with star power, he appears in only a few scenes, principally as the ruthless motivator of the young brokers who hypes their insatiable greed. Affleck shows in these scenes how good he can be—and how he need not rely on a more vapid presence as a romantic leading man (Gigli). His character is similar to that played by Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross. In fact, Boiler Room seems to be a junior version of David Mamet's classic dealing with American capitalism running rampant in small companies, destroying people's lives, and undermining moral fiber.

Particularly moving is Ron Rifkin's performance as Ribisi's father, a judge who set impossibly high standards for his son and then compromises himself trying to save him.

The writer-director of Boiler Room, Ben Younger, reportedly spent some time in a broker's firm to understand and get an accurate feel for the situation he was trying to dramatize.

1. All of a film of 2000? Wall street? Banks and the financial collapse of 2000 and a heat? Other films, margin call, puncture, the sequel to wall street?
2. The ethos: greed is good? Money goals? No altruism, ambitions, motivations, speeches of encouragement? The group watching wall street, repeating the lines for the past? The reference to Glengarry glen Ross?
3. New York settings, Manhattan, the outer areas? Money, brokers, cons and shams, organized fraud, the equivalent and thieves? Living on the edge of the financial market?
4. Seth’s story: the voiceover and his commentary on himself? The picture of his ambitions? His life at home, the photos of himself as a child, his relationship with his parents? Young and his broken leg? His father and difficulties with personal communication? His hopes? The film opening with Michael and his hoopla? Caught up in the spirit? Going back, his dropping out of college, his running the casino from his apartment, his school, money, his friends, his assistant? The invitation for greed and the others? Their arrival, greed and his cash, Seth winning? The meal, his father and his attack, his deceiving his father about college? The invitation to come to the company, for the audition? The secretary and her interest in him? The motivational speech, his response? Friendship with Chris? His meal with his father at the diner, his father’s outburst against him, not dating? The meal at home and his explanation of his new job? At work, the instructions, the phones of the routines, following the patterns, always moving forward, the rebuke spun the superiors, is extending his competence? The secretary, Griggs jealousy, going out with her, the discussions, personal? A story of Harry, the phone call, playing him, the psychology, the motivation, Harry and his talks with his wife, his plans, her moving against him, moving out? His investing further, trust trusting Seth M though he did not know him? The reaction with his father, his father ousting him? His building up his information, Michael and the floor of the headquarters, the shams? Meeting his father, asking his father for financial help? His father’s reaction, the ball? The FBI, contacts with the secretary, falling set? His arrest, the rest his father, the phone being tapped? The interview, Seth and his deals, to protect his father, her to work, a swede in Michael and Chris for the money for Harry? The separate room, Chris and the signing of the document, the FBI arriving, Seth going to a new life?