Thank You for Smoking (Widescreen Edition)
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Actor: Aaron Eckhart, Eric Haberman, Joan Lunden, Mary Jo Smith, Todd LouisoBrand: Fox
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: Spanish (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.1
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.40:1
Running Time: 92 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-10-03
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: 20th Century Fox
DVD Reviews of Thank You for Smoking (Widescreen Edition)
DVD Review: A brilliant satire that smokers and non-smokers alike can enjoy
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an intelligent, excellent satirical film, so don't get caught up in the title, for I think it can be misleading. Smokers, for example, will likely suspect this film of being a vengeful attempt to make Big Tobacco look like Satan's most loyal servants, while anti-tobacco's attack dogs may suspect some hidden agenda to actually make smoking look cool. Neither would be correct. Thank You For Smoking launches its barbs into both sides of the tobacco conflict, shining a good bit of the harsh light of truth onto both. No matter which side you're on, you can enjoy this brilliant little film.
The sad fact is that the debate over smoking oftentimes has nothing to do with cigarettes; it's really all about money and power and politics. Look at Al Gore, who could cry about the loss of his sister to cancer even as he profited from tobacco, or Bill Clinton (who did things with a cigar that even Big Tobacco would never condone), whose attack on Big Tobacco conveniently served him as a smokescreen to distract the public from his many personal problems. Obviously, many people do oppose smoking for very sincere reasons, but some politicians jump on board merely as a means to power and influence. In this movie, they're represented by Vermont's Senator Ortolan K. Finistirre (William H. Macy), who is leading the effort to put a large poison label on cigarettes. He's not exactly all heart, though: berating his assistant for not choosing someone obviously on death's door for his "cancer boy," lamenting the fact that one of his enemies didn't actually die after being attacked by anti-smoking vigilantes, and generally engaging in the same kind of self-profiting spin as the representatives of Big Tobacco.
Finistirre's nemesis is Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart), the smooth-talking de facto spokesman for the tobacco industry. Eckhart's brilliant performance keeps the film far away from the many pitfalls that would seem to dominate the landscape for this kind of satire. Naylor is almost untouchably good at his job, able to deftly and quickly take a hostile crowd and win them over (or at least stave them off) with his defense of freedom and personal choice in America. What does he do what he does? That's never definitively answered, but paying the mortgage is alluded to by Nick and several other characters. One thing that Nick alone has, however, is a human and sympathetic persona, as revealed in his relationship with his son. The presence of the boy adds to the story's otherwise absurdist atmosphere, as we watch the boy look up to and begin to emulate his father's debating skills. More than that, it shows us a human side to Nick, and that is something this film almost had to have in order to succeed.
Nick's character is sort of morally ambivalent, but you can't help but like him - and he certainly comes off in a better light than Senator Finistirre and a certain reporter played (passably at best) by Katie Holmes. Nick should have known better than to sleep with a journalist, as Heather Holloway goes about doing her job much the same way Nick goes about doing his. Her only concern is the story and the attention it will bring her. She and Finistirre, much more than Nick and his fellow spokesmen from the alcohol and firearms industries (who jokingly refer to themselves as the MOD [Merchants of Death] Squad and argue over which of their products is more deadly) are the real villains of the story. Even if and when they might do the right thing, they do it for all the wrong reasons. Nick may engineer good spin for Big Tobacco, but at least he doesn't pretend to be someone he isn't.
The film features a surprisingly good cast (excepting Katie Holmes, of course, whose "steamy" scene with Eckhart is almost too far away from the camera to be seen with the naked eye), including the likes of Eckhart, Elliott, Macy, Robert Duvall, Rob Lowe, and - in a really funny cameo - Dennis Miller. Jason Reitman may be a young filmmaker, but he really nailed just about every aspect of this film. Making a film about Big Tobacco that never deviates from its satirical position to moralize either for or against smoking, skewers all concerned parties equally, defies the dangerous modern-day obsession with political correctness, and maintains a consistently intelligent, funny atmosphere throughout, is quite an accomplishment indeed. Unless you simply can't take a joke (or you're the reviewer from the LA Times or some similar leftist rag), you're going to enjoy this movie.
Description of Thank You for Smoking (Widescreen Edition)
WARNING: Thank You For Smoking "just might make you laugh your head off!" (MAXIM). Aaron Eckhart stars as Nick Naylor, a sexy, charismatic spin-doctor for Big Tobacco who'll fight to protect America's right to smoke -- even if it kills him -- while still remaining a role model for his 12-year old son. When he incurs the wrath of a senator (William H. Macy) bent on snuffing out cigarettes, Nick's powers of "filtering the truth" will be put to the test. As Nick says, "If you want an easy job, go work for the Red Cross."As the saying goes, Aaron Eckhart was born to play Nick Naylor, the 30-something "voice of Big Tobacco" in this brazen satire of corporate profits and what lobbyists will do to protect them. Right from the opening, Eckhart is in spin mode, turning the tables on a popular talk show when he states health officials want a young teen stricken by cancer to die more than big tobacco does, since the boy would be a martyr to them, but only a single lost customer to the industry. Audiences gasp, panelists guffaw, and the kid happily shakes Nick's hand. The Academy of Tobacco Studies has a colorful array of folks surrounding Nick, including his cantankerous boss (J.K. Simmons) and the Colonel (Robert Duvall), tobacco's undisputed leader. His closet friends are lobbyists for guns (David Koechner) and alcohol (Maria Bello) who discuss their odd businesses over regular lunches, but when a cutie-pie reporter (Katie Holmes) swings into Nick's life, things begin to unravel. Based on Christopher Buckley's even more outlandish novel, Thank You for Smoking is a bright light for the filmgoer tired of gutless films formulated by committee, and first-time filmmaker Jason Reitman has expertly cast the film, which includes deft turns by William H. Macy and Sam Elliot. Nick's son, a throwaway in the novel, becomes a major influence here in Nick's development and a key student of Naylorisms such as, "If you argue correctly, then you're never wrong," though a father and son trip to Hollywood to visit an uber agent (Rob Lowe at his most suave) demonstrates how the inclusion of the son both helps and hurts the film. Book fans will miss the wicked plot turn, but the final result is a sharp and smart comedy deserving of a long, savory drag. --Doug Thomas
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