Thank You for Smoking

Nick Naylor is a talented man who is employed as one of the top spokesmen for "Big Tobacco". Sure he has to keep the alleged "truth" about the health effects, contributing to the death of 1200 people each and every day, but he's got to pay the mortgage just like the rest of us. He is separated from his wife but still wants to be a role model to his son while also pursuing his chosen career. Summoned to meet with The General (one of the last great tobacco barons), Nick is put in charge of pushing through new ways of promoting smoking while also defeating a push by Senator Finistirre to put a skull and crossbones on the front of every cigarette packet sold in the country.

If the plot summary sounds like this film has a definite narrative flow to it then I'm sorry for misleading you because, although it moves in a certain direction, it isn't that tight a story. It probably didn't help either that I had literally been in a different cinema watching Dr Strangelove an hour before I watched this film because this was never going to be able to compare (no matter what the current IMDb rating says!). The comedy isn't that sharp and in terms of satire this is about as mean as a poodle. This lack of teeth is evident from the very start where the opening credits are kind of cool, comic and fun; in the same way the comedy is cool, funny, enjoyable but not really something that rips into its subject with an acerbic wit that I expected. Part of me was thinking this at times that this was a problem but then I realised that it actually wasn't that big a deal.

The reason is that, sure it ain't a sharp satire, but it is a fun comedy with a general swagger and a great ear for dialogue. The story wanders and tends to go off in directions that it drops or doesn't follow through, but by staying with Nick at least we have a focal point that is interesting and engaging. I did have a bit of a problem swallowing Nick's sudden massive lack of professional judgement and the fact that it is a key part of the plot made the film seem to stall for a while, but such moments were mostly covered by the pace and energy of the majority. The targets are easy but the manner of writing produces a great feel of mocking them from the inside rather than being outside throwing stones. The "gentle mocking" approach takes away the edge but it makes the film easier to enjoy. It has a steadily amusing air to it while also throwing in lines, characters and touches that made me laugh out loud. Reitman may not be the future of satire but he can certainly do comedy and this film is all the better for this work as director and screen writer.

The cast is deep and everyone gets a piece (albeit mostly small pieces). The film belongs to Eckhart who has proved (Company of Men etc) that he seems to find it easy to play characters whose moral compasses are way off. He is as charming as he is soulless and he is a delight to watch – a major force in the film being as engaging as it was. The support cast includes some real heavyweight names such as Duvall, Bello, Elliott, Holmes, Macy, Simmons, Lowe and others. Generally the quality is high but I found the presence of Holmes to be a distraction and her "fully clothed" sex scenes to be pretty laughable – her lack of genuine sex appeal and chemistry here made her part of the plot much harder to buy.

Overall then this is not the sharp, acerbic satire that some reviewers would have you believe it is – it simply hasn't got the teeth or the balls for that. But this shouldn't matter too much because what it does do is produce a consistently fun atmosphere that is cynical without wandering away from being pretty mainstream in delivery. The cast are mostly very good but Eckhart dominates with a great lead role while the material keeps the laughs coming on a fairly regular basis.

I saw this movie at a screening in DC last night. It was great. Aaron Eckhart, the single leading man with the WORST haircut in Hollywood (full disclosure - I'm damn near bald) matches very well with the direction of Reitman. From the get-go, it's a fast-paced send-up of everyone and everything in the tobacco war. The entire cast does a good job (w/ the exception, maybe, of Katie Holmes). Rob Lowe is hysterical in his cameo, but I have to say Eckhart & his MOD squad buddies (Maria Bello & David Koechner) really light up the screen. Their scenes of discussing the dealing out of death through the industries they represent over drinks are a real strong point of the movie.

The fact that this movie doesn't take sides - and really, could be about any issue, because it's more about the MAN behind the spokesperson - but makes fun of all sides in the tobacco issue. The interaction b/w Nick Naylor (Eckhart) & the old Marlboro Man (Sam Elliot) is priceless, as is the back-and-forth between Naylor & Senator Ortolan Finistirre (William H. Macy) towards the end of the film -it's basically good actors doing what they do well - and it's very funny.

The movie's also a little bit touchy-feely, focusing for a bit on the relationship b/w Naylor & his son, Joey (Cameron Bright) - the kid's good & some of the lines written for him are priceless.

There was one odd, stupid thing - and my wife agrees w/ me on this, so I'm not just being a guy; there are 2 'sex' scenes w/ Eckhart & Katie Holmes, but zero nudity. Nada. Not even partial. We see them having sex in multiple places & positions, but they're almost completely clothed. It just took away from the credibility is all I'm trying to point out here - as I said, my wife actually made the comment before I did.

Bottom line, it's a great movie - well worth the price of admission. It's funny, it's entertaining & it moves, what more could you ask for?

You'll need to inhale, then exhale slowly and relax before plunging into the world of Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart), lobbyist and bag man for the Tobacco Industry. The laughs are some of the best abdominal exercise I've ever had at the movies. Thank You for Smoking is far and away the best satire to come out of Hollywood in years. The last attempt I remember was WAG THE DOG. This film is far better at true satire, its wit biting do-gooders and do-badders alike. It has been too long since Satire and the Politically Incorrect Sense of Humor have been allowed to point out the absurd in all sides of an issue. If you don't laugh out loud, your sense of humor has become a casualty of malpractice by the Doctors of Spin and the Nursemaids of Political Correctness.

Young Jason Reitman's direction and screenplay are deft and light. He is never heavy-handed, or worse, condescending (as may have happened more than once in WAG THE DOG). Based on a novel by Christopher Buckley (the son of William F. Buckley), the script is the star here. The double, triple, and sometimes quadruple entendres are spoken conversationally by a star-studded ensemble cast, who clearly revel in great material and great lines. Every reviewer opines that this will be Aaron Eckhart's break-out role. With his Dudley-Do-Right face and "that guy who always gets the girl----- on crack" charm and glibness, his Nick Naylor is the ultimate purveyor of the spin doctor's prescription: "the means justify the end".

The casting director should be congratulated in the same breath as the director. Rob Lowe as the "genius" behind Hollywood "EGO", a consultant firm which helps raise financing for movies with strategic product placement, is note-perfect in a "small role". With William H. Macy, the Vermont Senator who takes on the tobacco industry, Maria Bello, a fellow Merchant of Death lobbyist, and Robert Duvall, the "Captain" of this particular industry--- the cast is jaw-dropping, and sublimely funny. Katie Holmes, pre-TomKat, is gorgeous, seductive, and completely believable as the reporter who stops at nothing to get her story.

Nick Naylor's relationship with his son is the lens which focuses Nick on his own behavior. Even that relationship is not treated as a cliché, or completely reverently by the satirist, who remains true to the last frame to the goal of letting the air out of our self-righteousness. It is a breath of fresh air. I not only recommend it, I intend to see it again.

A clever satire of the spin-world (thanks largely to its cast and a witty script by Jason Reitman), Thank You For Smoking comes on like Wag the Dog via The Insider – it's a painfully honest insight into the tobacco industry, led by the narration of Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart), the Big Tobacco corporation's chief spokesman. His narcissistic self-infatuation ("Charles Manson kills people; I talk.") and sleazy tactics land him in trouble when he finds himself bribing a lung cancer victim in front of his pre-teen son, who is not yet old enough to smoke but is being influenced by his money-driven father.

Nick has a lot on his mind. He's got pressure from an anti-smoking Senator (played brilliantly by William H. Macy), his boss, his ex-wife, fanatical groups on homicidal missions, a double-crossing reporter (Katie Holmes) and a Hollywood producer (Rob Lowe) trying to cast the perfect Hollywood glamorization of smoking (Brad Pitt and Catherine Zeta-Jones are offered as the leads).

The movie, directed by the son of Ivan Reitman (the "Ghosbusters" director/producer extraordinaire), balances absurdity with realism; moments of the film come across as poignant reflection while following scenes are completely the opposite. This balance is thrown off a bit sometimes – David Koechner's portrayal of an NRA lobbyist is great but feels out of place, as if it belongs in a comedy in the vein of "Anchorman." And ultimately this uneven mix of the deadly serious (literally) with off-the-wall gags does catch up with the film; it eventually falls back upon its very strong script, which supports it (a lesser film might be affected more drastically with a weaker screenplay), but some scenes probably should have been toned down a bit to comply with the subtler and more realistic scenes. For what it's worth, the wacky scenes are extremely hilarious, but they seem to contradict other portions of the material.

Jason is a better director than his father, though, and shows a lot of potential here: I'd say the direction is almost deserving of a more serious film. I'd love to see what he could do with a drama in the future.

The movie also boasts an excellent lead performance by Aaron Eckhart, who oozes with sleaze, greed, corruption and a hidden sense of morals. He knows what he is doing is wrong, but he's not a stereotypical Hollywood motion picture "good guy" – even the closing of the picture, without spoiling it, isn't the moralistic cop-out I had expected; the movie isn't a black-and-white painting of the smoking controversy; it doesn't take sides on either side of the debate.

This is really being marketed incorrectly as the next "40-Year-Old Virgin" right now, but the film – for the most part, anyway – really isn't as hilarious as it is thought-provoking and engaging. Apart from a few aforementioned moments of utter absurdity, the majority of the film's duration involves some pretty serious topics, and it handles them well. It's not a bust-your-gut-funny movie, and it's perhaps not as strong as some reviews would lead you to believe, but it's one of the better satires in recent memory and certainly one of the more effective since Wag the Dog.

Just saw this as it premiered in Toronto - awesome cast, very funny dialog, and more than skin deep. First time director does a nice job - and the opening credits are noteworthy. RECOMMENDED. Pokes fun at the smoking industry (and lobbyists), but at others as well, and its hard to disagree with the sharp satire. Rob Lowe's small role is priceless, the casting was perfect across the board. Nick Naylor's (Eckart) relationship with his son is center and keeps some genuine qualities through all the laughs. My friend and I both rated this near the top or at the top of the 7 films we saw in Toronto last weekend. Not sure what its distribution / release schedule is yet, as there was still some debate over who had actually purchased the rights to it. Eckart in person came across as very genuine and is also in another great upcoming movie - Neverwas.