Intermission: 'Boiler Room' succeeds as Younger's directorial IPO

"Boiler Room"

Directed by: Ben Younger

Starring: Giovanni Ribisi, Vin Diesel, Nia Long, Ben Affleck, Ron Rifkin

Rated: R

If ever a movie was made for its time, "Boiler Room" is it.

Who wants to be (or even marry) a millionaire?

Everyone, of course.

Some people figure they can get there by buying into the ever-expanding stock market; others try to make their fortunes by selling those stocks. "Boiler Room," written and directed by first-timer Ben Younger, takes a look at both sides of the coin, but the emphasis is heavy on the selling side.

Not since "Glengarry Glen Ross," or "Wall Street," has a film examined the cutthroat world of high-pressure sales and high finance. This film works better than the latter and nearly as well as the former.

Part of what makes it work so well is Younger's keen ear for dialogue.

Giovanni Ribisi plays Seth Davis, a 19-year-old kid who has recently, unbeknownst to his parents, dropped out of college. But Seth has found a way to make a great living. He runs a casino out of his apartment in Queens.

One night a regular client drops by with a high-roller friend. This event changes Seth's life forever, but as he says in the voice-over, "I don't believe in fate. I believe in odds."

Greg drives a new Ferrari and doesn't even mind when he drops a bundle at Seth's blackjack table. He tells Seth it's time he thought about moving up into some real money and convinces him to apply for a job at J.T. Marlin, a stock brokerage that is far (in more ways than one) from the typical Wall Street crowd.

Eager to please his father, a judge who has recently discovered the nature of his son's business affairs, Seth decides to take the plunge. At the interview he meets Jim (Ben Affleck). At 27, Jim is already a millionaire and one of the "old men" of the company. He tells the young hopefuls that J.T. Marlin doesn't hire brokers, they train new ones. He also asks if everyone has seen "Glengarry Glen Ross."

Seth takes the job as a trainee. It's only $150 a week, but Jim assures him that within three years, he will be a millionaire. J.T. Marlin sells dreams to its recruits in much the same way the recruits sell them to the folks they contact with hot stock offers.

The mood at the company is intense, and the viewer suspects that all may not be as it seems. For one thing, these brokers get a much higher sales commission than is common, or even legal.

To unwind, the fellows frequent bars where they sometimes get into brutal fist fights with brokers from other firms. They also get together to watch, and do a kind of karaoke to, Oliver Stone's "Wall Street." It's at one of these sessions that we are treated to a very telling situation. Seth goes to Greg's mansion, a huge expanse on Long Island, but the only furnishings in the place are a leather couch, a big-screen television and a tanning bed. Wondering if Greg just moved in, Seth finds that he's actually lived there for eight months. It's a subtly unsettling scene.

Seth soon becomes the most successful of the new trainees, and even manages to pick up a love interest along the way. Abby is J.T. Marlin's secretary. When Seth questions her about how uncomfortable she must be, as a black woman employed by a firm where racial slurs are part of the norm, she asks him how many secretaries he knows who are making $80,000 a year. Nia Long's role here is small but pivotal.

As he becomes more deeply involved in the game, Seth also begins to have some doubts and misgivings about the company and the way it operates.

(Jim Wunderle works at Associated Video Producers and is a Springfield free-lance writer and musician.)