Cool poster, makes me wanna smoke.
Without the right Nick Naylor this film sinks without a trace, or more likely isn’t made.
That is because Nick Naylor is pro-smoking, or if that is unacceptable at least he is anti-anti smoking. His day to day involves going on a myriad of talk shows and current affairs programs and being the bad guy, the guy that continually says “come on it’s not that bad”, or “there is no medical evidence that categorically shows that”, and when that fails tries to distract and lead the conversation elsewhere by any means necessary.
While I was watching Thank You for smoking I kept thinking about In The Company of Men, a film where the lead character was such a prick yet so sorta likable that you cringed whenever he said or did something horrible, but you couldn’t wait to see what he would say or try to get away with next. In the Company of Men featured a virtually unknown (at the time) Aaron Eckhart… Guess who plays Nick Naylor?
Nick knows in advance that he is the bad guy in each and every conversation and meeting, but he seems to relish the challenge of taking on all the anti-smoking crusaders that takes pot shots at him, and he basks in every glory even though he never lets down the vaguely smarmy and hurt “I can’t believe you’re having a crack at smoking” face, like it is the anti-smoking guys who are evil and despicable.
Nick’s only friends are his employers who know how important he is to there cancer-causing cause, and similarly shady advocates/defenders of other industries perceived as nasty at various times, the gun and the alcohol lobbyists, they regularly catch up and trade war stories about battles won and how they spun an unfortunate event into something that didn’t reflect poorly on their product. They also secretly fight for bragging rights as to which industry actually kills more, (Yay alcohol!)
Nick’s adventures take him to Los Angeles as it is decided that to make smoking cool again it must be featured in films, more importantly it must be the right actors who smoke, not the villains or the weak, but the heroes and movie stars to cast the right light… so to speak.
Through the film Nick meets an ambitious young journalist played by Katie Holmes, who he promptly bangs, a slick talking Hollywood big-shot played by Rob Lowe who is willing to help with the smoking industry’s goal – for a (large) price, and the unfortunate man who was the Marlboro Man equivalent that is totally non-ironically dying of cancer himself. Nick’s nemesis is played by Bill Macy as the senator who has made anti-smoking his personal platform, only he is constantly coming off second best in his battles and is forever wondering why when he obviously has the high moral ground.
Thank You for Smoking is one of those clever little films that is perhaps a little too clever for a large audience, even though there aren’t too many twists and turns a lot of the humour is in exactly how Nick manages to turn a seemingly hopeless scenario in his favour, and how he puts down the well meaning and basically correct detractors of smoking without ever making them look bad, only confused. This sort of humour probably doesn’t mesh well with the “drinks his own wee-wee by mistake” stuff that panders to the 11 brain cell crowd, and in truth it isn’t as funny as a lot of those films. What it is though is an example of how Aaron Eckhart might be the most unlikely likable bad guy in films at the moment, his Nick Naylor is smooth talking, smarmy, quick, convincing: and 100% full of shit. But as a spin doctor charged with protecting the reputation of the most evil of all habits he is simply the best.
What is perhaps more scary is that you just know there are hundreds like him out there all being paid vast sums of money to do the same thing in real life.
As a guy Nick Naylor is essentially a reprehensible piece of work, as a film Thank You for Smoking doesn’t merit such scorn. It is punchy, clever and fast paced without being laugh a minute or world-changing, and solidifies Aaron Eckhart as the guy you didn’t even know you liked but do.
Final Rating – 7.5 / 10. The strange thing is that this isn’t the sort of film that I would normally choose to watch, that doesn’t mean it isn’t any good though. By the way, I don’t think I remember one scene where someone actually takes a drag on a smoke in this film.
