Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Thankyou for Smoking Movie Review


Or "thankyou for eating", was what I was thinking for the first 39 minutes of this movie. Sitting opposite me on the other side of the aisle was the loudest popcorn muncher I've ever heard.


Anyway, to the movie: it's a satire about the cigarette industry quite unlike "The Insider." Nick Naylor, excellently played by Aaron Eckhart (Erin Brockovich, In the Company of Men). He plays "the Sultan of Spin" for Big Tobacco, the VP for the Academy of Tobacco Studies. A lobbyist who, by his own admission, has "a moral flexibility" that most people will never have.


He is a likeable fellow, so likeable in fact that even "Cancer Boy" is making friends with him on a talk show, when Nick's employers sell the very things that made the boy ill.


Nick has regular lunch meetings with "The MOD Squad" (Merchants of Death), a group of 2 other lobbyists who represent the alcohol and arms industries, competing for the highest death toll.


Playing another reporter, Katie Holmes (Batman Begins) tempts Naylor into divulging more than he would ordinarily. She asks why he does what he does. Indeed, everybody seems to think the same thing. Why a man of his intelligence and verbal dexterity would work for a company responsible for killing 1200 Americans daily. Is it just to pay the mortgage as he suggests, or does he enjoy the Machiavellian scheming?


Deep down he seems to be a good guy, taking his son on trips with him (he is divorced), teaching him what he knows: "If you are argue correctly, you are never wrong". A very rugged Marlboro Man is Sam Elliot, dying of cancer. Not content with just trying to pay him off to gag the sick man, Nick then goes onto teach him to spin the situation to the best effect.


Rob Lowe is great in a small role as a Hollywood big gun who Nick tries to sweet talk into putting cigs into the hands of film stars. Not much sweet talking is necessary, as Lowe says his place is not to judge. Unfortunately this doesn't pan out, we don't see film stars with fags in their hands, in those movies or even within "Thankyou for Smoking".


This is an intelligent movie that is laugh out loud funny, definitely worth a watch. An interesting aside: The popcorn muncher turned his phone on before the end of the movie was finished, just in time to be left a little note about the possible danger of cellphones in the future. :)






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