Thank You For Smoking (2005)

Thank You for Smoking (2005)

AMC Fenway Theater, Boston, MA, May 27, 2006

** / ****

by Scott Muoio

Fans of Saturday Night Live will be in for a treat with Jason Reitman’s Thank You for Smoking. Like that television institution, Thank You is packed with repetitively boring jokes, smarmy satire, and little point for its barbs save self-congratulation for its writers. Both are harmless though, not nearly as intelligent as they think they are, and will surely serve as a nice one-two punch for a yuppie Saturday night.

The story of Thank You involves one-man talking machine (and does he ever blah, blah, blah), Nick Naylor (the perfectly cast, dimple-chinned Aaron Eckhart), tobacco lobbyist extraordinaire. Naylor travels the media circuit spinning the plight of the tobacco industry as that of freedom and choice versus the controlling repression of the American government (William H. Macy is the crusading governor of Vermont, and Naylor’s arch-enemy). Along for the ride is the band-wagon jumping, child-like media (Katie Holmes in a ridiculous performance of a ridiculous role), who will side jump to whichever can bring the most bucks for their own cause. Throw in Naylor’s young son Joey (Cameron Bright) who worships dad, ex-wife Jill (Kim Dickens) who now sleeps with a doctor of course, an aging, sick, and angry Marlboro Man bent on tobacco industry retribution (Sam Elliott, raspy as ever), and Naylor’s Merchant of Death support group, Bobby Jay (David Koechner) of the gun lobby and Polly (Mario Bello) of the alcohol industry, and the whole thing is a simmering stew of rhythmic mediocrity.

So why was I less than impressed with the average Thank You for Smoking, a film whose trailers are much, much funnier and pointed than the feature, itself? Well, I suppose said trailer filled me with anticipation for a witty, fun, and funny tale of how ridiculous the media, lobbyists, and crusading politicians can be when they take themselves so utterly serious. I was hoping for interesting, quirky characters that could put a real face on easy clichés. But alas, Thank You for Smoking is little more than a level 1 satire of typical punching bag topics that gives almost no belly laughs. Combined with an overabundance of blah, blah, blah repetitive “arguments” about arguing and little character progression or conclusion whatsoever, Thank You seems much longer than the advertised 92 minutes and is far less entertaining than the two-minute trailer. A pity, really, considering the potential this movie seemed to possess.

The bright spot in this otherwise fairly dreary film is Rob Lowe. Lowe plays a far-east obsessed, yukata wearing movie-mogul who is sort of ying to Naylor’s yang. While trying to figure out a way to get cigarette smoking shenanigans into everyday motion pictures he finally decides upon a Catherine Zeta-Jones/Brad Pitt post-coital puff under the stars on a space station in the future. “But won’t cigarettes explode in an all-oxygen environment,” ponders Naylor. “Sure,” concludes Lowe, “but that’s easily solved by a line like, ‘oh, that’s OK, that’s why we invented the something or other machine.’” Now that’s funny. And also in the trailer.