Directed by: Jason Reitman
Starring: Aaron Eckhart, Cameron Bright, Maria Bello, David Koechner, Sam Elliott, Robert Duvall, William H. Macy, Katie Holmes
The fact that Nick Naylor (Eckhart) is a lobbyist for Big Tobacco doesn't detract from his charm and likability. When asked why he does it, he replies, "Because I'm good at it." He is. Nick is able to go on TV shows defending smoking, even when faced with a cancer-stricken teenager in the midst of chemotherapy treatments. Thank You For Smoking is a pointed satire of the lobbying industry. Yes, it is as much an industry as tobacco or auto manufacturing. Billions of dollars in profits hang in the balance.
Nick's job is to keep people smoking and keep the government at bay. He is divorced and has a son, but not many friends. The closest thing he has to friends are representatives from the Alcohol and Firearms lobbies (Bello and Koechner), whom he meets with once a week over lunch to talk shop.
Nick's biggest challenge is a congressman from Maine (Macy) who is eager to debate him on the dangers of smoking. Nick says he can back up claims that smoking isn't bad for you with scientific research conducting by Big Tobacco scientists. "These guys can disprove gravity." Lobbying isn't exactly life-affirming work, but it pays the bills. Eckhart performance is smooth, charismatic, and charming. He can sell ice to Eskimos. If he has any reservations about his job, he doesn't show it much. But yet, he has to know he is helping peddle a lethal product.
Reitman, like in his other films Up In The Air (2009) and Young Adult (2011) walks the fine line between satire and presenting us with characters who are borderline pathetic. Do we laugh at them so we may not cry? Possibly. There are no real heroes in Thank You For Smoking, just varying degrees of greedy corporate types and sleazy politicians. It is a tribute to Reitman and Eckhart that they create a mostly likable guy in Nick Naylor who we wish would see the light.
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