Thank You For Smoking
By John Sheridan, Blockbuster.co.uk

“Right there, looking into Joey's eyes, it all came back in a rush. Why I do what I do. Defending the defenseless, protecting the disenfranchised corporations that have been abandoned by their very own consumers: the logger, the sweatshop foreman, the oil driller, the land mine developer, the baby seal poacher...”

A clever comedy, superbly written and directed by Jason Reitman; Thank You For Smoking follows master of spin, big tobacco spokesman Nick Naylor as he works to defend and promote smoking to an increasingly sceptical American public.

The underrated Aaron Eckhart takes the lead as Nick Naylor, a fiendishly talented spin doctor working on behalf of the tobacco industry. Despised by all but his adoring son ( Cameron Bright) and a few like minded evildoers (Tobacco, Alcohol and Firearms); Naylor is the master at dodging the cancer issue and making zealous health advocates appear ill informed and hypocritical while he comes out appearing totally reasonable and smelling of roses.

There are clouds on the horizon for Naylor however. An opportunist Senator ( William H Macy) is holding hearings in Congress publicly discussing whether to add ‘poison’ labels to all cigarette packets. Naylor is also a “known face” and a leading journalist is on his case, examining all she can in Naylor’s life in order to reveal to the world – tobacco’s master of spin.

In addition to defending big tobacco from its critics; Naylor has masterminded a plan to make smoking cool once more by getting Hollywood stars to light up on camera and therefore encourage the public to see smoking in a different light. Under the direction of his boss, tobacco’s Mr Big ( Robert Duvall), Naylor travels to Los Angeles to meet with a top Hollywood agent ( Rob Lowe) who claims to be able to convince leading stars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie to take up smoking for a fee.

Keen to bond with his son, Naylor takes Joey to California with him, and along to a visit to a former cigarette spokesman who is now sick and blames tobacco for his woes. Masterfully bribing the man to stay quiet, he exposes his son (and all of us), to his rather morally dubious ways and his life lesson that there is no right or wrong…there is just spin.

Written and directed by Jason Reitman, the son of Ghostbusters’ director Ivan Reitman; Thank You for smoking is a fiercely smart and non-judgemental movie that does it’s best to show both sides of the smoking argument. Naylor is a great antihero and while on one hand he deals in death and prevents big tobacco from being held to account; on the other, he is just doing a job and, in the spirit of America, ensures that big tobacco’s position is defended and they are given a fair chance at doing business. Satirically funny, this is a clever film that will make you think. Add to your list now!