Thank You For Smoking
You’ve probably seen the ads for this movie - a charismatic Aaron Eckhart, in voice over, mocks his character’s reputation as a slick spokesman for Big Tobacco. It’s a sly, winking ad that says, “Hey, folks who hate cigarettes - here’s a satire about how charming it is to be evil. Put that in your pipe and smoke it!” It celebrates selling the business of smoking with the same satisfying feeling one might have feeling smug about running a charity. It’s clear the movie is a satire, but what isn’t revealed until you actually see it is that it’s a film about the depths to which a man’s integrity can sink in the name of paying the mortgage. Oh, and it’s hilarious.
We saw this movie screened for listeners of a conservative AM talk radio station, incongruously at the art house theatre in the gay district. Demographic targets, anyone? Eckhart is the perfect choice to play Nick Naylor (ha ha) - he’s handsome, approachable, but not so much that he seems fake. He’s smart and (in his film career) he’s comfortable with exploring the grayish edges of any moral perspective.
Amoral or questionable protagonists are hot right now - no white-hatted cowboys or black-bearded villains any more. Sympathetic assassins, cuddly mob leaders, crooked but sincere cops - these are the characters capturing our interest in film today. While Eckhart and his Merchants of Death compadres compare fatality statistics for their respective professions (competing for highest, of course), we are glad our guy is the best at what he does, even as we are appalled at the results of being the best. Does he win at the end? And if he does, would we cheer him on for succeeding at doing so much wrong? Yet it’s irresistible to watch him do his thing - we all wish we could have such command of a moment.
Thank You For Smoking mocks the specific wiliness and emptiness of a lobbyist whose cause is against the public interest, but it also explores how deep inside a man does a job like that go? Naylor is a smoker, but we never see him smoke. We never see anyone smoke, actually (rats in a smoke-filled habitrail notwithstanding). Naylor’s precocious and adoring son (Cameron Bright from Birth and Godsend) takes after him and trusts him - a father’s dream. But would this father want his son following in his footsteps? Pride or protection?
It sounds very serious, but really a large portion of the movie was obscured by raucous audience laughter. It’s very, very funny, with witty, snappy dialogue and delicious comments on the deathdealing culture of profit. It’s keen in its observations of detached pettiness, pants-down retrenching, and delicious verbal wordplay. It even takes a break to jab at the alien verbal morass of Hollywood. The film makes use of quick, iconic symbology even as it makes fun of us for needing such simplification of ideas. The soundtrack is filled with all those great old songs extolling the pleasures of the plant that built America. It’s a heady movie and it’s a fun ride. Like the product, it’s cool, available, and I believe re-watchings will become addictive. Heck, half my job here is done for me! Go see it - reward the studios for doing it right.
MPAA Rating R-language, some sexual content
Release date 3/17/06
Time in minutes 92
Director Jason Reitman
Studio Fox Searchlight
