Review of Thank You for Smoking (2005) by Blake P — 21 Feb 2012

Nick Naylor (Eckhart) is a cigarette lobbyist whose job is to try to prove to the world that cigarettes aren't bad for you. In the process he becomes one of the most hated people in America, considering he appears to have no sympathy for any of the dying people he's aware of.

He's divorced, and has a young son (Bright), but he's trying to remain a good role model for him, which is getting harder as he gets older. Nick is ashamed of his job, and his only friends remain to be an alcohol lobbyist (Bello) and a salesman (Koechner).

Things get even worse when it seems that Nick's life may be in danger. "Thank You in Danger" was future big-time director Jason Reitman's first feature film, and would follow it up with "Juno" and "Up in the Air", and more recently, "Young Adult".

It seems his films have just been getting better and better, and though "Thank You for Smoking" may not be the best of the bunch, that doesn't mean it isn't a terrific film. It's a razor-sharp satire that is as smart and self-aware as it is funny, and most satires seem to have an either or dilemma, and that's just one of the signs how talented Reitman really is.

Though it does lose a little bit of its bite when it comes to the scenes where we have the father and son moments, but as soon as we see anti-smoking scenes taking place on an Oprah-esque talk show or CNN, that's when all the B.

S-ing comes in, returning the film into it's witty satire state all over again. The script is just so perfect, even if it does exist without (Reitman's famous screenwriter Diablo Cody), and it creates such great characters and such funny lines that I'm very surprised it wasn't nominated at the Oscar's for Best Original Screenplay.

And with top-notch performances, especially from Eckhart and Bello, "Thank You for Smoking" succeeds in everything it does. Recommended.