BOILER ROOM

 

TWO STARS - Unsettling

 

 

       In a society where everyone wants to either be a millionaire or marry one, the temptation to amass wealth illegally is rampant.  Feeling entitled to their slice of the American Dream, there are those who do not want to achieve it by education and hard work but by financial schemes and scams that appropriate the hard-earned wealth of others.

       This truth is presented not only with the vulgarity of its greed but also with its language in Ben Younger’s debut film, “Boiler Room.”

       With the pace and style of a music video, Younger takes the statement by Notorious B.I.G. as the theme of the film.  Noting that white people turn to white-collar crimes rather than inner-city drug dealing, Notorious B.I.G. states:   “I went the white-boy way of slinging crack rock.  I became a stockbroker.”

       But it is not just any type of stockbroker he presents, it is a testosterone-charged scam of a stockbrokerage firm called J.T. Marlin, an intentional mimic of the J.P. Morgan firm.

       The central character is Seth (Giovanni Ribisi),  the troubled son of an angry judge.  Though the struggle of their relationship is given as a primary reason for Seth’s decisions, this is only part of the motivation.  With voice-over commentary, Seth informs us that he believes the many stories being told about overnight successes who became millionaires in the stock market.  He simply wants in on the action.

       Having already lied to his father and dropped out of school to open an illegal casino in his apartment, Seth is vulnerable to the sales pitch of an obviously successful young broker named Greg (Nicky Katt).

       Coming to Seth’s casino late one night, Greg pitches Seth to work with him at the brokerage.  When Seth agrees, he becomes a part of something far more exciting than he had ever experienced.  Promised that he will become a millionaire in only months, Seth is certain that this new wealth will not only please his father but satisfy his greed as well.

       This is the underlying moral message within the film.   Greed, in all its various forms and promises, is nourished over time.

       Seth does not just turn one day from a healthy, moral and generous person into an obsessed, greedy and immoral con-man, he has been preparing for it most of his life.  This opportunity is simply the abyss of his steady decline.

       At first, Seth doesn’t realize the illegality of the brokerage.  But through a series of coincidences, he becomes aware that the firm is actually an elaborate scam that uses the stock market.

       Though we won’t explain the intricacies of the scheme, it builds on two primary motivators:  First, the desire of the average, upper middle-class person to get in on a bull market and, second, the sensational stories of over night millionaires made through start-up companies and their initial stock offerings.

       Though all people need money to survive, the truth the film explores is that just getting exorbitant amounts of money does not give a person social status, personal class, happiness or love.

        Seth sees that the wealth he seeks has done nothing for the senior brokers with whom he works.

       In one revealing scene, Seth goes to the home of one of the most successful brokers and finds a house as bare as the broker’s heart.  Obsessed with getting money, none of them know how to spend their money for their own or anyone else’s good.

       This is a valuable message.  Like a milkshake so large that it makes a person ill to drink it quickly, large amounts of money quickly earned can also sicken the life of its recipient. 

       Rejecting Biblical advice, senior broker Jim Young (Ben Affleck) states, “Anyone who tells you that the love of money is the root of all evil doesn’t have any.”   The rest of the film proves his arrogance to be mistaken.

       Though Seth’s father (Ron Rifkin) is a demanding, judgmental and cruel man who thrusts Seth into a turmoil of inferiority and self-doubt, one of the more uplifting moments is when he apologizes to Seth for a life-damaging event that occurred when Seth was a child.  Such humility is elicited because Seth expresses the depth of his love for his father and his willingness to suffer to save him.

       Greed, in all its various forms, is often touted as a good thing by those who suggest that wealth is the answer to the questions of life.  But the “Boiler Room” takes greed to its extreme in order to strip away any pretense about its destructive nature.  Its lessons are valuable to a generation enchanted by greed’s siren songs.

 

 

(words:  776)

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