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'THANK YOU FOR SMOKING' MOVIE REVIEW
Category:
Movie Reviews
Posted:
Friday, April 14, 2006
Reviews of current and upcoming movies. The blockbusters, the indies, the mainstream and the obscure.
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Movie title: Thank You for Smoking
Director: Jason Reitman
Starring: Aaron Eckhart, Maria Bello, Cameron Bright, Adam Brody, Sam Elliott, Katie Holmes, William H. Macy, Robert Duvall, and Rob Lowe
Length: 92 minutes
Rating: R for language and some sexual content
Thank you for Smoking starts out strong – the opening credits are fantastic. All the names and credits are worked into cigarette box packaging as Tex Williams warbles, "Smoke, Smoke, Smoke That Cigarette!” (“Puff, puff and if you smoke yourself to death/Tell St. Peter at the Golden Gate that you hate to make him wait/But you just gotta have another cigarette.”) Right away you know that it’s not taking itself too seriously.
Smoking is the decidedly politically incorrect story of Nick Naylor (Echkart), a spin doc lobbyist who works for Big Tobacco. It’s his job to take on anti-tobacco, manipulating and skewing his opponents’ words so that even though you know he’s morally wrong he does sort of have a point. His job is to accentuate the positive – the benefits of smoking – and downplay all that “Smoking Kills” rhetoric. In the opening scene, Eckhart appears on an Opra-esque talk show hosted by Joan London. It’s an anti-smoking panel that includes a young boy suffering from lung cancer. The audience boos Naylor when he is introduced, but he defies the other panelists’ stance, saying it is actually in tobacco’s best interest to keep people alive so they can continue to smoke. When he announces his company’s intention to launch a $50 million campaign to educate kids against smoking, he’s turned the tables and the audience enthusiastically applauds Big Tobacco’s humanitarian efforts.
It’s an interesting gamble to make Naylor the hero of the film, and equally interestingly, it pays off. Eckhart is perfectly cast and ably carries the film. After floundering for years in supporting roles and leads in bad and forgettable films, it’s good to see him hit his stride here. He makes Naylor a likeable guy who obviously loves his job. He’s a divorced but devoted dad with a smart son who is learning the art of spin – “If you argue right, you are right” – and applying it to everything from homework to gently manipulating his mother.
The film skillfully plays both sides of the smoking coin, showing the underbelly of both. William H. Macy plays an anti-tobacco senator who clearly out of his league when pitted against Naylor. We see both the good and the bad sides of politics and power, and we see how we are so easily manipulated and led.
You’d expect Naylor to get his comeuppance before the final credits, see the error of his ways, switch sides and use his powers for good. That’s not exactly how it plays out. I’m not a big fan of the “Hollywood ending,” and one of the things I liked best about Thank You for Smoking is that it doesn’t go that route. Ultimately it’s about the freedom to choose and consequences of choice.
- John
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