Thank You for Smoking

Plot synopsis:
The film opens with Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart) appearing on Joan Lunden's daytime talk show, along a doctor, a senator's aide, and a teenage boy with cancer. As he's introduced, the audience spits at him. The screen freezes, spittle in midair, while Naylor explains what he does for a living in a voice over. He works for the Academy of Tobacco Studies, and he represents Big Tobacco. The Academy is supposed to research links between disease and smoking, and has never been able to find anything conclusive.On the show and throughout the film, he takes the offensive position (in both senses). On Joan Lunden's show, he protests that in no way would he want a potential customer to die, and accuses the doctor of profiting off cancer patients.His immediate nemesis is Senator Ortolan Finisterre (William H. Macy), a Birkenstock-wearing Vermonter whose office is decorated with cheese and bottles of maple syrup. Senator Finisterre wants to plaster a graphic skull-and-crossbones picture on every pack of cigarettes.Through all of this, Naylor is also trying to maintain a relationship with his son Joey (Cameron Bright). Naylor's boss BR (J.K. Simmons) wants ideas on how to make smoking sell. "We don't sell Tic Tacs, we sell cigarettes. And they're cool, available, and addictive. The job is almost done for us." Naylor has the idea of product placement in movies.He takes Joey on the trip to Los Angeles to meet with an agent about putting more smoking in movies. Naylor is divorced, and shares custody of his son. His son is rather uncomfortable with his father's profession, but Naylor is as great arguing with his son as he is with the press and starts to win him over. Naylor portrays himself as being on the side of freedom and personal choice.On a side trip, Naylor takes a briefcase full of cash to the original Marlboro Man Lorne Lutch (Sam Elliott) who is dying of cancer. There's no strings attached; Lutch can just keep the money. A suspicious Lutch asks why he can't just go to the press. Naylor suggests he do exactly that, and recommends which reporter to talk to. Lutch can go on TV, denounce the tobacco industry, and donate the money to a worthy cause. Donate? Well, if he denounces them he can't keep any of the blood money. Naylor leaves, confident that Lutch will keep quiet.Back in DC, he debates Senator Finisterre on Dennis Miller's show. A caller threatens Naylor with death for being responsible for millions of deaths. Naylor brushes the threat off, but he's kidnapped. The kidnapper (Jeff Witzke) covers Naylor in nicotine patches and leaves him naked in the lap of the Lincoln Memorial. Ironically, his smoking gave him a resistance to the nicotine, otherwise he would have died.Naylor is interviewed by a reporter for a Washington paper, but ends up seducing her. He's confident of some positive press, but is shocked when she gives away all of his secrets. She was having sex with him to get the story. She tells about the hush money to Lutch, the movie deal, and his weekly meeting with the MOD Squad: the Merchants of Death, gun and liquor lobbyists (there's a funny bit where he one-ups them on how many people his industry kills).The Academy distances itself from Naylor, who is shattered for a while. Some supportive words from his son inspire him to fight back. He reveals that the reporter was having sex with him to ruin her career, and agrees to appear in front of Senator Finisterre's committee. He comes out swinging again, accusing Vermont's cheese of clogging arteries and causing heart disease. When asked if he would let his own son smoke, he points out that his son is under 18 and that would be illegal. Pressed for what he would do on his son's 18th birthday, he says that if his son wants a cigarette, he'll buy him one.Outside the hearing, BR offers him his job back but Naylor turns him down. Good timing: shortly thereafter, the tobacco industry settles for billions and the Academy is shut down. Joey wins the school's debating contest, and Naylor finds new clients: "Look into the mirror and repeat: 'There is no conclusive scientific evidence linking cell phone usage and brain cancer.'"Apart from the plot, the film is filled with absurd little cutaways. Naylor has a weird fantasy where's he's starring in a hotel safety video. The gun lobbyist has some trouble with the Senate metal detector. Naylor imagines other industries that can use help, like seal clubbers.

Tags: comedy, boring, dark, murder, clever, satire, romantic, entertaining

Review:
The film is basically about his profession as he spins the news, pitches a movie idea, dodges a subpoena, has an affair with a reporter (Katie Holmes), tries to spend time with his son (Cameron Bright), and has lunch with an alcohol lobbyist (Maria Bello) and a firearms rep (David Koechner) - where they literally compare body counts.
Even Adam Brody is enjoyable as Lowe's hyperactive assistant whose in-joke with a co-worker earned one of the biggest laughs of the movie.The majority of the credit, however, needs to go to first-time feature director Jason (son of Ivan) Reitman.
So as Big Tobacco (for whom he is a lobbyist) launches a campaign to reinstate the "cool smoking" image into mainstream Hollywood, and sends Nick to work a producer for the proper product-placement, Nick decides to bring his son along for the ride, to see "how daddy works" in hopes to bond with him.Good satires are hard to come by, but Reitman's "Thank You For Smoking" is so wet with sarcasm and dripping with humour that it is impossible not to enjoy.
Only once does it fall prey to predictable moral messages, as when Nick starts reevaluating his work and has moral qualms following his kidnapping by an anti-smoking group, only to swoop down into tongue-and-cheek mode again and return twice as biting  and twice as funny.Although the film is evenly peppered with fun one-liners and perfect delivery from its cast, the best scene is when the M.O.D. squad are at their usual restaurant hang-out at the end of the day and brag to each other and argue over whose business kills the most people per year.
Macy) towards the end of the film -it's basically good actors doing what they do well - and it's very funny.The movie's also a little bit touchy-feely, focusing for a bit on the relationship b/w Naylor & his son, Joey (Cameron Bright) - the kid's good & some of the lines written for him are priceless.There was one odd, stupid thing - and my wife agrees w/ me on this, so I'm not just being a guy; there are 2 'sex' scenes w/ Eckhart & Katie Holmes, but zero nudity.
The story of a lobbyist for the tobacco industry who's job is to put a spin on cigarettes, improve their image, make them cool again, and prevent one senator from getting legislature to mandate that cigarette companies place a large graphic skull and cross bones on each pack sold.Nick Naylors character is brilliant.
I saw this at Sundance last night (actually it was a Salt Lake screening, and thus the filmmakers didn't bother to drive 30 miles to talk to us...not that I am bitter...) At first I was a bit worried that this was going to be the old hat anti smoking movie that makes all smokers victims of the eeeeevil tobacco companies, but then I saw that it was based on a Christopher Buckley novel and I relaxed a bit!
This pokes fun at all sides of the issue, from the tobacco lobbyist's insistence that there has been "no conclusive proof" that tobacco is harmful, to the legislator's thinking that putting a warning label on cigarettes will actually make someone pick up a cigarette package, read the label, and decide not to smoke...as if ANYONE with half a brain doesn't know that inhaling smoke into your lungs will harm you.Aaron Eckhart did a fine job in his role, as did Sam Elliot, Rob Lowe, Katie Holmes...I could go on and on.
A clever satire of the spin-world (thanks largely to its cast and a witty script by Jason Reitman), Thank You For Smoking comes on like Wag the Dog via The Insider  it's a painfully honest insight into the tobacco industry, led by the narration of Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart), the Big Tobacco corporation's chief spokesman.
Macy), his boss, his ex-wife, fanatical groups on homicidal missions, a double-crossing reporter (Katie Holmes) and a Hollywood producer (Rob Lowe) trying to cast the perfect Hollywood glamorization of smoking (Brad Pitt and Catherine Zeta-Jones are offered as the leads).The movie, directed by the son of Ivan Reitman (the "Ghosbusters" director/producer extraordinaire), balances absurdity with realism; moments of the film come across as poignant reflection while following scenes are completely the opposite.
He knows what he is doing is wrong, but he's not a stereotypical Hollywood motion picture "good guy"  even the closing of the picture, without spoiling it, isn't the moralistic cop-out I had expected; the movie isn't a black-and-white painting of the smoking controversy; it doesn't take sides on either side of the debate.This is really being marketed incorrectly as the next "40-Year-Old Virgin" right now, but the film  for the most part, anyway  really isn't as hilarious as it is thought-provoking and engaging.
But Aaron Eckhart, who plays the lead role of Tobacco industry spokesperson Nick Naylor, and is playing a character who himself smokes, doesn't actually light up a cigarette on camera.Nick Naylor's job is spin, and he's damn good at it.
You also have Robert Duvall as The Captain: the guy BR has to run policy through and who is idolized by anyone working in Big Tobacco; Sam Elliott as a former Marlboro Man who is dead-set against not shutting up in anger until Naylor spins a few things; Katie Holmes as a reporter Naylor falls for; Rob Lowe as a movie producer who'll take funding from anyone and can spin as well as Naylor, and Dennis Miller as (thankfully) himself.So then, I don't think this movie takes sides at all on tobacco.
STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart) is damn good at his job but that doesn't stop him being any less detested for it- he's a spokesperson for the tobacco companies, cleverly putting slants on 'proven' medical facts and observations.
But a double crossing reporter (Katie Holmes) and a group threatening to bump off Nick for the 'lives he's ruined', his own life is starting to look pretty bumpy on it's own.Always leave it to the small independent films to produce the best comedies, because they generally do a much better job of it than big over-blown Hollywood productions.
TYFS has received a large number of generally glowing reviews up to this point...and I'm glad to say this will be another one.With a title and premise that was guaranteed to spark controversy (or maybe outrage would be a better word?) rather than go for shock value in any other way, this manages to be a consistently clever and sharp stab at the hypocrisy and over-reaction that can cloud those who make it their lives to poo poo tobacco and those who try and defend it, with one of the greatest cinematic characters in a while in Nick.
There is no legal industry more unpopular than Big Tobacco and in this film Aaron Eckhart plays with great relish, Nick Naylor, a superb operator with absolutely no shame who prosecutes Big Tobacco's cause at venues ranging from grade school classes to congressional committees.First time director Reitman derived his screenplay from Christopher Buckley's 1994 book, and in the book there is a deeper motivation than the "must pay the mortgage" defence.
William H Macy, however, as the anti-tobacco Senator for Vermont (home to cheese-created cholesterol), manages to avoid farce and produce a believable character.Christopher Buckley was reportedly pleased with this film though I think his message was obscured somewhat by the pyrotechnics of Aaron Eckhart's performance.
But Nick is good in what he does for the mortgage."Thank you for Smoking" is a great politically incorrect movie, that satirizes the phobia against smokers and cigarette industry.
This film was clearly made as a comedy and in that department it succeeds, with clever writing, great dialog and each role cast to perfection.Aaron Eckhardt is Nick Naylor, a spokesman for Big Tobacco on a mission to defend the rights of smokers and the tobacco industry.
Summoned to meet with The General (one of the last great tobacco barons), Nick is put in charge of pushing through new ways of promoting smoking while also defeating a push by Senator Finistirre to put a skull and crossbones on the front of every cigarette packet sold in the country.If the plot summary sounds like this film has a definite narrative flow to it then I'm sorry for misleading you because, although it moves in a certain direction, it isn't that tight a story.
His turn as the senator leading an anti-smoking crusade is great contrast to Aaron Eckhart's spin wizard needs to be watched.Once upon a time I used to enjoy Jim Carey's comedy - I still think he is one of the best comic talents but his movies try to teach you a lesson.
Thank You For Smoking does two things in particular- it shows it's writer/director, Jason Reitman (son of Ivan), should have a good career ahead of him, with this being a promising debut; it also shows how casting decisions do make up then crucial framework for a film like this, where its ensemble form needs the right people.
The satire comes in the form of it's lead character, a lobbyist for Tobacco (Aaron Eckhardt, one of his better performances), who has a crises in the midst of a reporter's investigation (Katie Holmes), his own son, and in dealings with a super movie agent (Rob Lowe, one of his very best roles), and even the old Marlboro man (Sam Elliot).
For all the talk and spin, Naylor never really says, "Smoke cigarettes", he says, "Make your own decisions." The unfortunate thing is that in order to make a living saying that, he has to do it under the name of Big Tobacco.I, personally, love any movie that's willing to tackle issues of media and able to do it without being condescending or terribly misinformed.
A little gallows humor is necessary when you peddle mortality.Anyway, the idea is that Nick must spin Smoking Is Good, from deriding "questionable" scientific studies that disagree with his premise to lobbying Hollywood for more product placement (that is, no more would cigarettes be held in movies only by Bad Guys or Europeans - the heroes would get them, too).
Almost everybody I know who has read the book remembers the nicotine patch episode, but they only allude to the campaign to reduce teen smoking, which was "everything your parents told you about smoking is right." I suppose the truth.com ads about blah blah smoking isn't stupid hit too close to life imitating art.Aaron Eckhart was fantastic as the smarmy spokesman for Big Tobacco, and William Macy outdid himself as the dim-witted Birkenstock wearing liberal senator who decorates his desk with jars of maple syrup, and who is on a crusade to expand the nanny state and make life safe for everybody -- even if that meant changing history.My only complaint was that I had to drive to God-forsaken Bethesda to see it in the white hot core of liberal lawyer hell.
So when Pathe was running these special PAC movies re-run, I grabbed the opportunity to see the movie with my colleague's son Felix who had come for a flying visit from Zurich to meet his Dad.The story is about Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart) who is lobbyist for the smoking industry in US.
But writer/director Jason Reitman takes the tough road by weaving a straight story with a sane, rational, human protagonist.Yes, this is a satire, so there are plenty of absurdly comical scenes like when Nick shows up at his son's career day and essentially convinces a bunch of 12-year-old kids to smoke.
They like to sit around over dinner and compare the number of people their products have killed.Robert Duvall has a modest part as the "Captain" of tobacco and Rob Lowe gets to play Jeff Megall, a big time, Machiavellian Hollywood money man, who is lining up Catherine Zeta-Jones and I forget who, to play a naked in a space movie with some serious smoking scenes--for a price to be paid for by Big Tobacco.
Jason Reitman's "Thank You For Smoking" would make an interesting companion piece to "Lord of War," since both are sharp, acerbic satires about industries - one tobacco, the other small arms - whose practitioners are often referred to as "merchants of death."Based on the novel by Christopher Buckley, "Thank You For Smoking" centers on Nick Naylor, a smooth-talking lobbyist for Big Tobacco whose job it is to counter all the medical charges leveled against cigarettes so that people will go right on using the product despite the fact that Americans are dropping dead from heart disease, cancer and emphysema, caused primarily by smoking, at the rate of well over 430,000 people a year.
In this age of spin and with a relentless supply of public relations that could make Hitler look like a diplomat in this day and age, 'Thank You for Smoking' has a protagonist (Aaron Eckhart) who speaks on behalf of the tobacco industry and tries to lessen the public's perception of the damaging effects of a lethal product that kills hundreds of thousands of Americans each year.
However, as a sex symbol she leaves much to be desired...Maria (Duets, Payback & Coyote Ugly) Bello is cool in her usual tough-gal pastiche, like a 21st century Lauren Bacall.The real SPIN of this movie is a number of intertwined plot lines - how most modern situations require a way to justify their jobs they may or may not hate to keep family and roof intact (marketing, public relations or "spin"); the key to being a successful debater by not winning but making sure the other party looks more at fault (altering viewpoints with willing participation) and how does even a so-called "villain" look their children in the eye and convince them not to make the same mistakes they made while earning respect and gaining favour (for that one, watch the movie and see how Eckhart's character shows his love for his son)?
Well, to put that last sentence to rest, Thank You For Smoking was one of the wittiest and funnest(not funniest...well that too) movies I've seen in a little bit.You have Nick Naylor, he's the spokesman for Tobacco Study.
Yes, this movie is sometimes funny and Aaron Eckhart is as good as you expect in his role as Nick Naylor.
Since then, he has been waffling in leading man roles, but luckily, he comes back to form as the appropriately named Nick Naylor, tobacco industry lobbyist extraordinaire, in first-time director/writer Jason Reitman's wonderfully acerbic comedy about the power of media spin around the availability of cigarettes despite inescapable evidence that smoking kills.
I think the guy has talent and as long as he keeps making good movies he will be just as big as his dad is someday.So in conclusion, I like the message behind "Thank You For Smoking" but not the overall subject matter of the film.
Wickedly hilarious black comedy/satire based on the novel by Christopher Buckley about a quick-witted, scruples-lacking spokesman for Big Tobacco in the form of Nick Naylor (a never-been better Eckhart) whose penchant for spinning the truth only equals his duplicity until he faces trying to make the right impression for his young son (Bright).
Based on the 2005 novel of the same name by Christopher Buckley Thank You For Smoking stars Aaron Eckhart as cigarette lobbyist Nick Naylor.
Before the first commercial break, he hasn't so much as turned the audience over to his way of thinking, but he has them thinking in a different direction and that, my friends, is what he gets paid to do.Thank You For Smoking is interesting in that although it makes its argument, the film uses the tobacco industry as a backdrop to tell the story of the struggles that Nick endures with family, with friends and with those that find him the most despicable person on the earth this side of Hitler.His family of note is an ex-wife to which still speaks cordially, but otherwise has split with amicably and his young son, Joey (Cameron Bright).
"Thank You for Smoking" isn't especially meaty, and it likely won't give you much to chew on after viewing it, but as a funny, clever 90-minute diversion, you could do much worse.The chameleon actor Aaron Eckhart is perfect casting as a gifted spin doctor working on behalf of big tobacco companies.
Thank You For Smoking play a smart comedy on the topic of smoking and people behind the scene who want to eradicate the whole smoking issue by terrorizing people of it's ill effects.Great satirical movie, Aaron Eckhart a real good guy playing a character that some what is a bad guy type..
Macy as a Senator from the fine state of Vermont who always finds himself defending cheese rather than bringing down cigarettes; Rob Lowe as a Hollywood agent who's better at his job than Nick is at his; Adam Brody also seems to talk for a living but in a much different way than our "hero".One of the main reasons "Thank You for Smoking" is a success is because of the screenplay by Jason Reitman, based on the novel by Christopher Buckley.
Thank You For Smoking provides thought provoking content delivered through a network of great acting performances that make this film so thought provokingly hilarious.This comedy, unlike many that grace the screen these days, is clean enough to take your parents to, and funny enough that you will forget you are at the movies with your mom.
Thank You For Smoking provides thought provoking content delivered through a network of great acting performances that make this film so thought provokingly hilarious.This comedy, unlike many that grace the screen these days, is clean enough to take your parents to, and funny enough that you will forget you are at the movies with your mom.
Aaron Eckhart us simply amazing as lead character Nick Naylor: he is perfectly cast as the handsome, well-spoken lead lobbyist for the tobacco industry, and he gives a great performance.