Thank You For Smoking

THANK YOU FOR SMOKING:
starring Aaron Eckhart, Maria Bello, Sam Elliott, Rob
Lowe, William H. Macy, Katie Holmes, David Koechner, and
Robert Duvall.

Warning: This film may cause side splitting laugh attacks,
and introspective thought provoked by politically incorrect
humor. Pregnant women can safely view the following.

‘Thank You for Smoking’ is based on the Christopher
Buckley novel, and is directed by Jason Reitman, the son
of famed Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman.

This satirical take on “spin” in today’s
America centers on Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart), the tobacco
industry’s main lobbyist in Washington, DC, and
spokesman for the “Academy of Tobacco Studies”.
He is the quintessential anti-hero, fronting an organization
that has legally killed many millions of people. He advocates
personal freedom for the many that choose to light up
and smoke, nimbly surviving landmine questions in his
public dealings, with answers that twist the questions
onto the accuser.

Nick Naylor’s only two real friends are representatives
of organizations that also get cast a lot of blame for
society’s ills – the alcohol industry’s
Polly Bailey (Maria Bello), head of the Moderation Council,
and the firearm industry’s Bobby Jay Bliss (David
Koechner), who heads the gun advisory group Safety. At
their frequent dinner meetings they compare fatality stats
from their own respective products like an ESPN announcer:
30 daily firearm related deaths, 270 daily alcohol related
deaths, and tobacco, the overwhelming champion with 1,200
daily deaths. Together the three lobbyists are known as
the Merchants of Death.

Nick Naylor is in the center of the bulls-eye as Vermont
Senator Ortolan K. Finistirre (William H. Macy) pursues
a bill that would make it mandatory for a skull and crossbones
to be put on the sides of all packs of cigarettes.

Jeff Magell (Rob Lowe) is the Hollywood super agent that
Nick goes to about the product placement of cigarettes
in films, because (as he points out), the majority of
people who smoke in films today are Russians, Arabs, or
villains.

Nick has joint custody of his son Joey with his wife Jill,
and as the film progresses, he makes an effort to reach
out to him, answering frank questions about how he can
do such a morally questionable job that causes him to
be despised, hated, and the object of death threats and
scorn.

In his dealings across the country, he has to placate
the ex-Marlboro Man (Sam Elliott), who now has cancer,
fend off zealous reporter Heather Holloway (Katie Holmes),
and report to the “captain” of the tobacco
industry Doak Boykin (Robert Duvall).

The thing about this film which is utterly fascinating
is that not one cigarette is smoked, and there is not
a clear bias as to which side you should belong to, or
which beliefs you should subscribe to. Whatever your feelings
are, you will be forced to examine them after watching
this movie. ‘Thank You for Smoking’ takes
an objective look at a taboo subject, and gives you the
unfiltered truth - a behind the scenes peek at how “spin”
impacts and shapes our culture.

The moral of this story is to examine the “talk”
that we are in the midst of on a daily basis, whether
we know it or not, and to take responsibility for your
choices, and not to be duped by spin tactics. Every side
pushes their own agenda, with many of us caught unwittingly
in the middle.

Because of its raw visage, this is not a completely easy
film to watch, but it is a satire after all, so do not
take everything “as is”.

The M.P.A.A. has deemed it necessary to label this film
rated R.