Thank You for Smoking | Review

Reitman makes an argument that sticks.

The antithesis of a film like The Insider, this is an amalgamation of everything that is both right and wrong in today’s society. Offering a satirical look into the big money tobacco industry and the benign spirit of the corporate world with the perfect poster boy in Aaron Eckhart at the heart of it all, Thank You for Smoking is a biting satire perfectly transferred for the big screen by first timer Jason Reitman. Here the son of Ivan embraces a solid stylized tone of voice bringing out the best in the worst of people via Christopher Buckley’s 1994 novel, Reitman delivers a genuinely funny debut at least in the beginning stages of the comedy but the middle portion doesn’t hold onto that great tobacco taste.

Having a consciousness is bad for corporate America but good for family values. A balancing act which was once a fairly easy 3 side-step process for a family patriarch and expert spinner slowly becomes a not so obvious tight-rope situation. The first time we fell in love with him was in the now infamous Neil LaBute debut feature, here Eckhart charts a similar course and is perhaps the best corporate creep since Christian Bale’s American Psycho. The knee-slapping funny “Merchants of Death” sequences where pro lobbyists for alcohol (Maria Bello) and fire arms (David Koechner) and cancer-sticks rep (Eckhart) sit down for drinks and embark in their pissing contest offer the best in comic relief, but it’s the father and son pairings that offer the best moments of the film – such as career “what does your dad do? My dad is a lobbyist” day. These scenes also showcase the talents of Cameron Bright who is perhaps one of the better child actors around.

Commencing with the opening title sequence that looks like a museum trip on Americana cigarette culture and streamlining the picture with a slew of vintage songs about smoking (think blue grass-ish like in the Coen’s O’Brother movie) this shows that Reitman researched the project and as a first project serves an impressive use of devilish dialogue and offers an ending that doesn’t resort to your typical Hollywood-ending redemption. Demographically speaking this is perhaps a good substitution for viewers not willing to explore the slew of Will Ferrells, Vince Vaughns and Steve Carells type comedies but are looking for something lighter than Wes Anderson take on life.

An apparently missing portion of the film – a prolonged sequence involving Katie Holmes as a reporter willing to do what it takes to get to the core of the story doesn’t really hold the promise of anything pertinent but neither does a flux of subplots and unnecessary secondary characters. Unlike a comparable film such as Wag the Dog, Reitman’s comedy work on some levels but not all as it is meant as a complete farce and is extra slim pickings in becoming the fruition of something thoroughly promising. Old jokes get recycled giving the film a monotone tone after the midway mark, perhaps the marketing of the film should come with a warning, not a surgeon general’s but a recommendation that the entertainment value is there but only in spurts. While smoking is bad for you, this is a comedy that tastes great at first, questionable during the middle portion but the usual last unattractive puff is not that off-putting.

Sundance 2006.

Rating 3 stars