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If you toss out the Psych 101 father-dad trauma, "Boiler Room" ends up working nicely as a kind of minithriller revolving around one man's crisis of conscience. Younger is quite the wily lad himself. One of the first things that strikes you is the way he has cast young actors with familiar, trustworthy faces -- notably, Ben Affleck in a small role as an aggressive, jauntily snotty J.T. Marlin recruiter, and Tom Everett Scott, who barely looks old enough to shave, as the firm's wunderkind chairman -- as money-hungry wheeler-dealers. To his credit, Younger takes care not to make his characters unlikable -- the easy route for moviemakers who hope to expose the banality of venality.

Younger knows there's nothing to expose. He doesn't approve of the boiler room kids' behavior, but he resists making a judgment about their desire to make money, and it's a refreshing approach. One shot of Seth's Queens apartment/casino, furnished with a mix of dorm-room rejects and '70s Mediterranean leftovers, is all you need to understand why a beautiful, impeccably tailored suit just might appeal to him. And when we've decided that the J.T. Marlin guys are just like all those arrogant young financial-whiz types we've ever looked at askance on the subway or in a tony nightclub, Younger pits them against a group of infinitely snobbier Ivy League-educated brokers in a barroom skirmish -- making the point that in the pecking order of the financial world, go-getters like the boiler room boys are really just pathetic underdogs. Younger asks us to have some sympathy for them, but never pity.

Younger's a bit of a gunslinger with dialogue ("What are you, last night's erection?"), but his actors know how to run with it. Long's Abby is particularly appealing -- there's an almost frightening resoluteness lurking beneath the surface of her soft features. And Younger doesn't make a big deal out of the fact that Abby and Seth's romance is an interracial one. He's even audacious enough to give Seth a jokey line about it.

When Abby happens upon Seth riffling through some files, she asks him what he's looking for, and he replies in a honeyed voice, "I'm just looking for some chocolate love." In addition to being the kind of corny flirtation that all real-life couples engage in, it's also a completely believable line for the character. Younger gets the opportunity to make a big statement and, thankfully, passes on it.

Younger clearly took great care in casting his lead characters. Both the aggressiveness and the almost crippling insecurity of Katt's Greg are written on his face: His heavy brow might mark him as one of the bad guys, but his soft, full lips sometimes make him look like a little boy who's about to cry. And Younger really knows how to use Ribisi's looks to hit us where we live. Ribisi, a wonderful, consistently subtle actor, slips into the plan beautifully: It's a case where director and actor work the perfect con.

It would be one thing to watch an eminently handsome and disreputable-looking actor like, say, Peter Gallagher hop on the phone and coax some poor sod into forking over his life savings for a lump of stock that's certain to go nowhere. But seeing Ribisi do it almost kills you. As you take in the whole package -- his virtually chinless profile (he's like an unwittingly sexy Dagwood Bumstead) and his Victorian cupid's-bow of a smile -- there's something deeply unsettling about the way the lies roll off his tongue.

But Ribisi doesn't so much hammer on the immorality of those lies as illuminate their sheer inappropriateness for anyone who's trying to live a decent life. It's a smudgy distinction that a less astute actor might have missed, and it's one of the things that make "Boiler Room" cut just a bit deeper than it otherwise might have. Ribisi, with his innocent good looks, may buy low, but he always sells high -- sometimes high enough to send you reeling.
salon.com | Feb. 18, 2000

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