Thank You For Smoking
The smart, satirical comedy Thank You For Smoking has been in theaters since March 17th. Aaron Eckhart stars as Nick Naylor, a key lobbyist for Big Tobacco. The movie switches between first and third person to tell the story of Nick’s job, the art of spinning, and his life. Ultimately, it’s a strong-finishing comedy that looks at and pokes fun at various points of views on important and even trivial issues. One of the scenes that sticks in mind is when Nick is teaching his son Joey (Cameron Bright) how to spin with a chocolate versus vanilla ice cream argument. Joey argues for chocolate and Nick argues for vanilla. Afterwards, there’s a scene with them both eating ice cream–vanilla.
One of the most cunning details of this movie is that no one is ever seen smoking in the entire movie. Tobacco leaves, cigarette cartons, and nicotine patches are all shown, but never once is a cigarette smoked.
When exiting the theater, I picked up several postcards promoting the movie. Each has one of the “Great Moments in Spin” ranging from the Ashlee Simpson lip sync incident (“My band played the wrong song”) to the Rafael Palmeiro steroid scandal (“I haver never intentionally taken steroids”). And the postcards are in essence what the theme of the movie is all about. If one says the right things and crafts one’s message right, one can convince someone else of anything. Even if the truth is blatantly obvious or if it’s something that will kill them. One needs to step back and look at all sides of every argument and make an intelligent decision for oneself.
I’ve heard that the book is better than the movie (as is true in most cases). So, you might want to check that out first. Otherwise, I highly recommend seeing this, and it’s nice to see a good movie this spring. Very refreshing.
UPDATE: Thank You For Smoking is set for a Friday, April 14th wide release!
My Rating: 3.5 out of 5
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