Thank You For Smoking





Aaron Eckhart's chin dimple is scary and completely dominates every frame of in which he appears. Aside from showing us exactly how dispicable the tobacco industry execs and mouthpieces are, in a comedic way, there is the biting satire of the government itself. William H. Macy plays the liberal Vermont Senator who wants to place a grotesque skull-and-crossbones poison label on cigarettes; Eckhart the tobacco lobby spokesperson, Nick Naylor, who appears callous and evil, yet somehow he seems to always come off as a good guy; Robert Duvall a tobocco-exec in Winston-Salem. It's kind of strange seeing a big movie like that talk about your hometown. But then Duvall's The Captain character visits Winston-Salem General, a hospital that doesn't exist, and the nifty factor dissappears.

Despite all the other big-name talents around him, it is J. K. Simmons who gets the good lines. The character isn't much of a stretch for him though-- it's the same one he plays in Spiderman: the asshole fast-talking boss. But he's funny.

In the course of twisting and manipulating the truth for big tobacco, a job he acknowledges he is good at, Nick Naylor recognizes that his flexible ethics probably aren't the best example for his son to see. Or at least that was the impression we got until the end of the movie. Mr. Naylor leaves the tobacco industry and starts his own company. So we think, Yeah! He's doing the right thing! But no, he's still doing the same thing, just for himself now. So, what was the point of that whole aspect of the movie? That detail kept me from giving it five Giant Roosters. I'm not upset that in the end he didn't do the right thing, just that the ending contradicted the character arc.

Regardless of that flaw, the movie is worth watching. One could argue that the characters are stereotypes: the asshole lawyer, the sleazy tobacco exec, the lobbyist devoid of ethics, the innocent child being warped by an adored father, the reporter who will do anything (or anybody....) to get a good story, but that is acceptable in a satire. They help show the absurdity of whatever or whomever is being satirized.

Like Eckhart's character says, though, he does it "for the mortgage". Everyone can understand that, and it explains much of human behavior. For money, people will bend their morals as far they need to. And maybe it is this aspect of humanity that is also being poked at, and not just lobbyist and killer industries.