How others will see it. Some will watch this film to get an insight into how criminal brokerage companies do business. They may learn something, but hopefully will regard with suspicion some of the exaggerated situations. These include verbal abuse and completely unethical instructions from bosses; reckless gambling, carousing, and whoring by young brokers; a dull romantic triangle between Nia, Seth, and Katt; and excessive profanity from essentially all characters aside from Seth's mom.
Meanwhile, Seth proves to be brighter and more mature than all involved, aside from his unquenchable thirst for the fast money. Several scenes have our pale-faced young hero watching his fellow brokers make fools out of themselves in bars, clubs, or hotel suites, with Seth emotionally detached from their debaucheries.
Boiler Room is technically a coming of age film, but Seth is so uninteresting that viewers will instead see it as a mystery, in the vein of The Firm. How does Seth's firm make its money? Can Seth get out in time?
How I felt about it. The movie also tries to compare itself with two more successful films, Wall Street and Glengarry Glen Ross. These films are all morality tales involving white-collar criminals. Boiler Room even copies the Wall Street subplot of the go-getter son's relationship with his morally superior father. But Boiler Room has no character as memorable (or quotable) as Gordon Gekko. Greed isn't everything, but it does lead to a lot of lies told over telephones. For heaven's sake, never buy anything from a telemarketer.
To its credit, Boiler Room has two moments of plausible dialogue. Nia Long reminds her sailor-mouthed boyfriend that her sick mother is in the other room, and can hear his stressed-out rants. Seth strings along a newspaper telemarketer, his ego unable to resist demonstrating his superior selling skills.
However, this doesn't make up for the film's eye-rolling scenes, such as the father disowning his son and moments later expressing mammoth guilt for slapping his son ten years prior. Or a group of stock brokers flaunting their nerd-like memorization of the script of Wall Street. Or Katt's huffy jealousy toward the awkward romance between Seth and Long. Or the lemming-like avarice of the film's broker extras.