Thank You for Smoking

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© A.J. Malouin 2008

(Rating: 3 by Al and 10 by Caryl.)
(See our side-bar page “How Caryl & Al & The Film Snob Rate Movies”)

(2005/USA. Directed by Jason Reitman)
“Michael Jordan plays basketball. Charles Manson kills people. I talk. It’s what I do.” So says Aaron Eckhart at the end of this quirky, hip, down- and up-beat comedy. Eckhart is delightful as Nick Naylor, the roller-coaster-glib spokesman for American tobacco interests.

A film about the spin doctors who clutter and confuse the landscape of corporate and governmental America, “Thank You for Smoking” is satirically funny, funny, funny. (Have we mentioned how Funny it is?)

Maria Bello, Eckhart, and David Koechner play lobbyists who meet for weekly luncheons to compare notes on their lobbying effectiveness as representatives for the Bermuda Triangle of alcohol, guns and tobacco. MacBeth’s Three Witches? Permaybe. Their weakly gatherings provide the axis around which the film’s spinning takes place.

There are sooooo many amazingly comedic satellites dancing through this film that one is stunned as to what to mention first. Permaybe a simple alphabetical listing, then?

Cameron Bright does a great job as Naylor’s tweener son, Joey. Torn between adolescence and spinology, middle school and Corporate America, Joey is both his father’s moral barometer and rabid protege. Knowing what he’s up against as his dad steps forward to answer questions at his school’s Career Day, Joey prays aloud, “Please don’t ruin my childhood.”

Robert Duvall is on his last legs as Doak Boykin, “The Captain” and the tottering master of the glory days of American Tobacco. He rasps his orders from the deep leather armchairs of a private club centered in The Deep South.

Sam Elliot is Lorne Lutch, grumpy rifle-pointing retiree. Once upon a time, he was The Marlboro Man. (“I didn’t even *smoke* Marlboros. [PAUSE.] I smoked Kools.”)

Katie Holmes is an ambitious TV-news reporter who has sex with Naylor and gets taken to the cleaners for it. She has been soooooo Nakedly Ambitious about her career that we are not unhappy when this happens.

Rob Lowe is stunningly funny-terrifying as Jeff Megall, a King of Product Placement in Hollywood movies.

William H. Macy is here again at his off-beat overpowering best as the power-sodden Senator Ortolan Finistirre of The Great Cheese State of Vermont. (Satire!) When counter-attacked for the cholesterol in his State’s cheese, Finistirre retorts, “That’s ludicrous! The great state of Vermont will *not* apologize for its cheese!”

J.K. Simmons is the appropriate grease-smoothie as Noylan’s boss. He works Noylan as hard as he can until Noylan becomes a liability. He then “distances” himself from Noylan, and yet tries to enlist him again when Noylan spins his way back into the limelight.

This film is topical, thought-provoking, subversive and funny! Really funny! throughout. One of its wonderfully subtle points is that no one in the film is shown smoking. There is, however, a talk-show appearance by a bald-headed teenager known only as The Cancer Boy. As Noylan says of him, “The Cancer Institute wants this boy to die. They want to use him as an example. We want this boy to live! He’s a great customer!”

Spin! Satire! Hooray! (If only Bush The Younger had been this glib, for example, permaybe we would have believed *him* once in a while.) As Noylan says, “When you argue right, you *are* right!”

(1 hr 32. Rated R for language and some sexual content.)