Thank You for Smoking
December 11th 2008 05:55
Thank you, Jason Reitman, for writing and directing this film. I hope you won’t quit anytime soon.
Based on the Christopher Buckley novel of the same name, this satire on the tobacco industry is one of the smartest movies I’ve seen in ages.
Everyone knows cigarettes are bad for you, even the people selling them know it. But despite the knowledge that there are 1,200 smoking related deaths in the world every day, they still have to convince people to buy them. You’d have to have pretty flexible morals to do that job.
Enter Nick Naylor, a spokesperson for Big Tobacco, a man who can talk his way out of anything.
The film follows Nick as he appears on talk shows with cancer victims, bribes the dying Marlboro man, attempts to get cigarettes back on the silver screen, gets kidnapped by anti-smoking activists and takes on a government senator who’s determined to have a skull and cross bones emblazoned on every cigarette pack. He’s great at his job, and like everyone “has to pay the mortgage.”
As these events unfold, Nick is closely observed by two people – attractive and ruthless young journalist Heather Holloway, and his son Joey, who he somehow manages to be a role model for.
Nick also meets The MOD (a.k.a. Merchants of Death) Squad for weekly dinners. The other two members are Polly, who speaks for alcohol and Bobby Jay who does guns. They like to swap strategies and compete over whose product kills more people.
Nick is really the focus of this film and is played brilliantly by Aaron Eckhart, but the supporting cast, which includes Robert Duvall, William H. Macy, Katie Holmes and Rob Lowe, is perfectly chosen.
The script is razor sharp. Its snappy dialogue and dark humour will have you hooked.
Based on the Christopher Buckley novel of the same name, this satire on the tobacco industry is one of the smartest movies I’ve seen in ages.
Everyone knows cigarettes are bad for you, even the people selling them know it. But despite the knowledge that there are 1,200 smoking related deaths in the world every day, they still have to convince people to buy them. You’d have to have pretty flexible morals to do that job.
Enter Nick Naylor, a spokesperson for Big Tobacco, a man who can talk his way out of anything.
The film follows Nick as he appears on talk shows with cancer victims, bribes the dying Marlboro man, attempts to get cigarettes back on the silver screen, gets kidnapped by anti-smoking activists and takes on a government senator who’s determined to have a skull and cross bones emblazoned on every cigarette pack. He’s great at his job, and like everyone “has to pay the mortgage.”
As these events unfold, Nick is closely observed by two people – attractive and ruthless young journalist Heather Holloway, and his son Joey, who he somehow manages to be a role model for.
Nick also meets The MOD (a.k.a. Merchants of Death) Squad for weekly dinners. The other two members are Polly, who speaks for alcohol and Bobby Jay who does guns. They like to swap strategies and compete over whose product kills more people.
Nick is really the focus of this film and is played brilliantly by Aaron Eckhart, but the supporting cast, which includes Robert Duvall, William H. Macy, Katie Holmes and Rob Lowe, is perfectly chosen.
The script is razor sharp. Its snappy dialogue and dark humour will have you hooked.
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