Thank You For Smoking (DVD, 2009, Full Frame)

It is very easy to see why one might have a certain amount of trepidation in going to see a film like Thank You for Smoking. A lot of it may have to do with the title. We are automatically given the idea that this is a film that will deal with the subject of smoking cigarettes in a light hearted way. Even smokers may veer away from such a film. It turns out that the title truly does say it all (in a tongue in cheek kind of way). Thank you for Smoking is a biting satire that truly proves that satire can be great, if done tastefully and intelligently. I'd even go so far as to say that Thank You For Smoking is one of the funniest, most intelligent satires to come out of Hollywood in years, and it assaults everyone in its path.

How does silver-tongued tobacco-industry apologist Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart) live with himself? His cushy gig as spokesman for the Academy of Tobacco Studies consists of using statistical obfuscation, misdirection and doublespeak to position smoking as the front line of the battle for freedom of choice, rather than a blatant example of how a handful of amoral businessmen line their own pockets at the expense of public health. "If you argue correctly, you're never wrong," he assures his starry-eyed 10-year-old, Joey (Cameron Bright), and anyway, everybody has bills to pay, right?

Writer/director Jason Reitman (based on the novel by Christopher Buckley) has created a wild romp centered on a fascinatingly egotistical powerbroker too in love with his own abilities, and oblivious to his shortcomings. It's a formula for tragedy and comeuppance that is compelling to watch, along with Nick's attempt at a comeback, which is even more interesting and thrilling. All behavior is taken to the extreme for our comical benefit as Nick ends up in the middle of some hair raising situations, including a kidnapping, a confrontation with the tobacco industry's leading symbol (wonderfully played by Sam Elliott), and finding himself as the man in the middle of a political and personal firestorm when his cockiness catches up to him. Reitman makes every scene as absurd as possible, even when they have an air of truth to them, and he has the right leading man to take us through this roller coaster of a movie.



Eckhart is dazzling as a born phony almost brought low by believing his own lies, and he's matched at every turn by a stellar supporting cast that includes Robert Duvall as a Big Tobacco mogul, Sam Elliott as cancer-stricken Marlboro Man Lorne Lutch, J.K. Simmons as Nick's ruthless boss, Rob Lowe as the superagent who cloaks his bullsh** beneath a facade of Asian spirituality, and Bello and Koechner as his partners in slime.

Its true strengths come from going beyond the easy jokes: asking why someone might choose to do what Naylor does and how they can look at themselves in the mirror each morning. He's a target for lampooning, but both Eckhart and director Jason Reitman commit to making him human -- and thus render the film as much a character study as a comedy.