When lobbyist Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart) steps into his son’s classroom to give a talk on the importance of questioning the proposal that cigarettes are bad for the health, he hovers above his son for not more than a few seconds. His son turns to him in despair, almost in horror, whispering the words, “Please don’t ruin my childhood”. In another sequence, Nick is on air, debating a similar cigarette-related issue with Senator Ortolan Finistirre, when he receives a death-threat along the lines of “Nick Naylor, we are going to eradicate you from this planet for all the pain and suffering you’ve caused” from an anonymous caller. Such is the impression that Thank You for Smoking’s central character inspires. He represents the Academy of Tobacco Studies; his skills in lying and manipulating turn him into a highly valuable asset in the eyes of tobacco’s big guns. His job means he’s universally despised, but he has a “mortgage to pay”. And the answer to his son’s question “how?” is that he is, to paraphrase, morally flexible.

Jason Reitman’s debut feature is a highly thought-provoking satire. It reveals the hypocrisy of a nation’s “do-gooders” without siding with the bad guys either. The world exposes a world of sociopaths – the liars, the crooks, the terrorists and the self-proclaimed gods. On one side, Nick is just a cog in a machine run by selfish and greedy men trying with all they have to retain their power. As BR (J.K. Simmons) puts it “We don’t sell Tic Tacs, we sell cigarettes. And they’re cool, available, and addictive. The job is almost done for us.” On the other side, senators wage wars based on personal vendettas and in fear of losing face. They call for continual battles against one “evil” while indulging in countless others. Journalists sleep around and cheapen themselves for the sake of a story, while teachers force-feed their propaganda assignments.

Somewhere thrown into Reitman’s polygon is Hollywood agent Jeff Megall. Though Jeff plays a relatively minor role in the film, he raises the levels of absurdity enormously – springs to mind a scene in which he telephones Nick from home, standing in a Kimono, opening the call with the question, “do you know what time it is in Japan? 4 o’clock tomorrow. That’s time travel…” He likes Asian stuff, apparently. Megall embodies excess, vanity and stupidity while Robert Duvall as the Captain portrays the sheer ruthlessness and dog-eat-dog mentality that shrouds capitalist America.

Aaron Eckhart revels in his role as Nick, conjuring a persona so outrageously farfetched that it almost becomes a farce. He mingles with his two best friends over dinner; two representatives of alcohol and of firearms, he bonds with his son as a weekend guardian, and he pulls a fast one on the original Marlboro Man. Thank You for Smoking is a Vonnegut-like tale of humanity’s follies with just as much wit and flair.

Watch the film’s trailer here:





External links

Thank You for Smoking at IMDb

Thank You for Smoking at Wikipedia

Thank You for Smoking (awards won and nominated for) at IMDb

