Thank You For Smoking

Synopsis: Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart) is a lobbyist for the tobacco industry and he’s extremely good at what he does. But when journalist Heather Holloway (Katie Holmes) comes after him, will he be able to talk his way out of the lowest point of his life?

“Michael Jordan plays ball. Charles Manson kills people. I talk.”

This was probably intended to be a blistering satire of lobbyists, media manipulators, politicians and the like who all draw their life from the tobacco industry. It’s more like a Chinese burn, which isn’t bad really, though there are moments when it really nails things. But don’t let faint praise put you off, despite it’s failings Thank You for Smoking is funny and occasionally insightful. Its main problems are that it’s weighed down by a few less than convincing performances and pacing issues that, given the film is only 92 minutes, are kind of annoying. The story is the life of Nick Naylor, tobacco lobbyist, as he goes from engagement to engagement, doing his best to convince people that smoking is cool and the right of every American. Of course, he’s got a young son (Cameron Bright) who looks up to him, and all the tensions that go along with that. But that’s the first of the problems. I didn’t really like the father/son stuff, the kid annoyed me and seemed more a device to allow Nick to engage freely in exposition without talking directly to the camera. Which is odd, given there’s a voiceover where he does that anyhow.

But despite that gripe, the film has its moments. His friends, lobbyists too, have nicknamed themselves the MOD squad. Merchants Of Death. Alcohol, Guns and Tobacco. Their conversations as they each attempt to prove that they’re more deadly than the others are chuckleworthy. The situations Nick gets into are surreal and fun, trying to convince Hollywood to get actors to smoke on screen to make it hip again. Attempting to bribe an ex-Marlboro Man to stop speaking out against smoking. His battles with the crusading anti-smoking Senator Ortolan Finistirre (William H. Macy). These are the moments when the film nails the satire to give us something truly funny and sad. And when Nick discovers he’s given an interview when he thought he was just making pillow talk, the film really pushes home some pretty pointed arguments about what people do to earn a living.

The dialogue is snappy and witty, the acting is mostly good (except for the annoying son and a few random characters) and it is unapologetically amoral. The ending is proof of that. But still, it felt like it ran long, even though it was short. And that really really grated for some reason. So, fun, but poorly-paced fun.

Want more about this film?

Want something different?