Thank You for Smoking (2005)
Director: Jason Reitman
Movie review
From Time Out London
‘Thank You for Smoking’ is a movie about smoking in which no one is ever actually seen smoking. Slick, shark-eyed protagonist Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart), a lobbyist for the multi-billion-dollar American tobacco industry, is a smoker, or so we’re told, but no evidence of a habit is forthcoming – though at one point some anti-tobacco activists pelt Naylor with nicotine patches. Those hypocritical lung-huggers have nothing on Naylor and his buddy lobbyists, who call themselves the ‘Merchants of Death’ or the MOD Squad (Maria Bello shills for alcohol and David Koechner advocates for guns’n’ammo). The premise of writer-director Jason Reitman’s cynical farce is that a sharp mind, sufficiently motivated by cash and competitive bloodlust, can modify any fact and contort any line of logic to serve a bad but profitable idea. Naylor begins to fret about the ethical quandaries of his success, however, when faced with pointed questions from his son (Cameron Bright).Adapted from Christopher Buckley’s satirical source novel, Reitman’s first feature is potent with one-liners, but the whole is less than the sum of its zingers and its impressive cast, including Robert Duvall as a crusty billionaire, William H Macy as a nefarious blue-state senator, and Rob Lowe as a slippery agent (Katie Holmes is miscast per usual, this time as a crusading reporter). Besotted with its dazzling protagonist and committed to equal-opportunity attack, the film has no point of view beyond the position that everyone concerned is either amoral or an idiot or an amoral idiot. Aiming at all targets and hitting none of them, the movie is as harmless and inconsequential as a candy cigarette.
Author: Jessica Winter
Time Out London Issue 1869: June 14-21 2006
User reviews of this film
-
- jed said...
- Posted on Apr 29 2009 21:13 awesome
- Report as inappropriate
-
- Brian said...
- Posted on Aug 23 2007 05:28 The subject of the movie could offer a one-sided, biased point of view - the result would have been a simple, naive satire short of any insights. Fortunately, it does not make that mistake and presents ambiguous personas, enlightening dialogues and a sense of timing and humour, forming a nice movie out of a well-worn subject.
- Report as inappropriate
Cast & crew
Director: Jason Reitman
Cast: Aaron Eckhart, Maria Bello, Katie Holmes, William H Macy, Robert Duvall, Adam Brody, Sam Elliott, Rob Lowe, JK Simmons, Cameron Bright, David Koechner full cast
Genre(s): Comedy
Rated: 15
Duration: 92 mins
UK Release: Jun 16 2006
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
Hippies who work for The Man
To celebrate George Clooney comedy 'The Men who Stare at Goats', we look back at six memorable onscreen hippies who fought the system from within
Roland Emmerich's guide to disaster movies
Ahead of the release of '2012', Roland Emmerich offers his ten tips on creating the perfect global catastrophe
Grant Heslov: interview
Grant Heslov, director of 'The Men who Stare at Goats' talks about his old pal George Clooney, his interest in the paranormal, and his fond memories of working on 'Happy Days'
The Coen brothers discuss 'A Serious Man'
Masters of contrary comedy, Joel and Ethan Coen have struck gold again with their latest, ‘A Serious Man’
Ten inspirations behind 'Avatar'?
Time Out ponders the influences behind James Cameron's anticipated space-opera on the basis of the trailer
Michael Jackson's This Is It: review
Kenny Ortega's posthumous concert film is a rousing eulogy for one of pop's great enigmas
Michael Haneke: The man behind the menace
From Cannes to Munich to London, Dave Calhoun tours Michael Haneke's Palme d'Or winner, 'The White Ribbon'
Lone Scherfig talks 'An Education'
Danish director Lone Scherfig was an unlikely choice for a very English affair like 'An Education'. Cath Clarke meets her
How Jane Campion brought John Keats back to life
Time Out gets Romantic with the ‘difficult’ New Zealander about her new film, 'Bright Star'
Time Out's 50 greatest animated films with commentary by Terry Gilliam
In celebration of the release of Pixar's 'Up' and Wes Anderson's 'Fantastic Mr Fox', read our rundown of fifty classic feature length animations












What do you think?
Post your review now