Review: A 'Boiler' that bubbles

February 23, 2000
Web posted at: 6:12 p.m. EST (2312 GMT)

By Reviewer Paul Tatara

(CNN) -- The trailer for Ben Younger's "Boiler Room" promises a frat-boy cross between David Mamet's "Glengarry Glen Ross" (1992) and Oliver Stone's "Wall Street" (1987). Like those popular sell-or-die melodramas, it centers on the American mindset that says getting rich off of ill-informed schmucks is the key to life.

"Wall Street"'s Gordon Gekko (played by Michael Douglas) boils that mentality down to its essence when he says, "Greed is good," and that boiling-down is the main drawback to Stone's ham-fisted film. It's the main drawback of every Stone movie.

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Younger's fledgling stock-market superstars are too busy ruining peoples' lives for their own financial gain to generate a glib definition of what they do. Their mouths work a lot faster than their brains do.

With the exception of one dreadful performance, "Boiler Room" is a surprisingly sturdy film. Younger wisely focuses on the moral dilemma of a young financial trader who simply won't allow himself to notice that he's working for a crooked firm.

There's not as much wallowing in the money as there could have been. For most of its running time, "Wall Street" stroked the egos of the very people it was supposed to be exposing. Greedy, mean-spirited audience members will surely walk away from "Boiler Room" disappointed. That's quite an accomplishment, given the flashy material and Hollywood's overriding insistence on pandering to numbskulls.

Giovanni Ribisi stars as Seth, a college dropout who gets into hot water when his father (Ron Rifkin) finds out he's running an illegal gambling casino. The casino caters to local college students who are looking to blow piles of money between classes. Seth's father is a powerful New York City judge, so he's concerned about much more than his son's well being. If Seth gets busted, Dad could lose his seat on the bench.

Rifkin carries himself with angry, thoroughly intimidating authority. His scenes with Ribisi are terribly intense; you feel like they could explode into physical violence over a poorly worded accusation. This is easily the best screen work that Rifkin has ever done.

Seth wants to get rich, but he doesn't want to work for it. One day, Adam (Jamie Kennedy) an old friend of Seth's, shows up at the casino with a well-dressed buddy in tow. The buddy, Greg Weinstein (Nicky Katt), is a millionaire stock trader who drives a Ferrari and casually flashes a huge wad of bills at the gambling tables.

Greg is impressed with Seth's makeshift casino. He can see that Seth is a go-getter, so he recruits him as a new trader-in-training at the Long Island firm where he works. The firm is loaded with young, very ambitious men who are willing to skirt the truth in any number of ways to sell stocks to skeptical clients. The firm's established traders promise the new recruits that, if they stay committed, they'll be millionaires in three short years.

Seth is much smarter than the other upstarts, and he's quickly receiving guidance from Greg and a charming trader named Chris (Vin Diesel). Chris and Greg are constantly slamming each other with ethnic slurs while trying to get the upper hand at the office.

The office itself is a bare-bones operation serving mostly as a place to put the telephones while the traders hard-sell their clients. When another sucker falls to their seductive sales pitch, the traders erupt in smug applause. They are not nice people.

Subtle unveiling

Younger exposes these "successful" characters as dim bulbs in deceptively casual ways.

A brief voice-over by Ribisi points out that the traders are making loads of money while having no clue how to spend it. Diesel and Katt accumulate all kinds of stuff, but it doesn't lend them an ounce of class. Their gleeful escapades at the office degenerate into name calling and pointless fist fights when they hit the bar in the evening.

They're wholly immature, just as they should be if their main goal in life is to take advantage of other people.

Some plotting is too obvious. A years-long rift between Seth and his dad is the impetus for a third-act healing process that's more than a little bit desperate. And a romance between Seth and the firm's too-beautiful receptionist (played by Nia Long) is borderline ridiculous.

However, these are minor quibbles given the highly charged atmosphere and focused performances.

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Yes, Ribisi is miscast. He looks like he just got his learner's permit. Put him in a suit, and he looks like he just got his learner's permit and a new suit. But he's able to shift from innocence to craftiness in seconds, and his gentle presence grounds the movie when there are too many self-serving jerks running around. Seth takes too long to wise up to the firm's crooked dealings, but Ribisi keeps you interested throughout.

Diesel is also great. It's a shame that he was the first platoon member to bite the dust in "Saving Private Ryan" (1998). He's got charisma to spare, and his daunting size serves him well. He's bound to become a major star in the near future. It'll be nice, though, if he can steer clear of the mindless action pictures that are undoubtedly being waved in his face as you read this.

As for that dreadful performance: Ben Affleck has a brief but pivotal role as Jim Young, a "brilliant" trader who delivers an orientation speech to the new guys. Jim is a great deal like the character Alec Baldwin so memorably plays in "Glengarry Glen Ross." In story-telling terms, Jim is supposed to force-feed the office's cutthroat mentality to the audience.

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But Affleck's delivery is so lifeless you'd think he's trying to help the rest of the cast memorize his dialogue. The character calls for an actor with immense presence, someone who commands your attention and may well be able to strangle you -- someone like Diesel, in other words. Affleck plays him like a cross between Keanu Reeves and George C. Scott, with Keanu eventually winning the wrestling match. Ben Affectless, anyone?

"Boiler Room" is full of F-words and slurs of every imaginable variety. But the characters are supposed to be crass, so it helps establish the proper tone. Rated R. 120 minutes.

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Official 'Boiler Room' site
New Line Cinema

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