Thank You for Smoking (2005)reviewed by Benn "Where's the Humanity?" Farrell
In "Thank You for Smoking," a satirical indie comedy, the life and professional of Nick Naylor, played by Aaron Eckert (Suspect 0), is examined. A political lobbyist for a coalition of big tobacco, Naylor attempts to remain a role model for his 12-year-old son, while explaining to him and the audience why he makes a career out of defending the public health reputation cigarettes have. First off, let me say I am not a smoker, but I have several close friends who are and I was romantically involved with a smoker for four years. My point is, I'm tolerant of smoking. The film initially slips in a bunch of anti-smoking statistics, but in the end, it goes out of its way to say, "Let me raise my own child." The script adopts one of my favorite political sentiments, being lets try changing hearts before changing laws. Eckert is great. J.K. Simmons (The Ladykiller) plays his boss and is quickly becoming one of my favorite character actors. The subplot involving Naylor and Washington D.C. reporter Heather Halloway, played by Tom Cruise' sex slave and Scientology breeder Katie Holmes (The Gift), was completely predictable and it added the only major conflict of the movie. It was the only useless part of the movie. I think the cast was great, the politics were balance and the humor was on cue. "Thank You for Smoking" was written and directed by Jason Reitman, son of legendary comedy film director Ivan Reitman (Stripes, Dave), proving that nepotism is alive and well even among indie film production. Benn - Where's the Humanity?
Here's a movie that could have drifted into a one-sided political view, instead it presented two views fairly.