Thank You for Smoking
Seen Friday, March 31; Loews Boston Common
* * * * (out of 5)
It’s been very difficult lately to get a laugh out of a crowd without going significantly over the top (re: high concept stuff like Wedding Crashers or The 40-Year Old Virgin). What makes Thank You for Smoking so very much fun is that it sits very smugly and confidently on the top, and every once in awhile jumps a little bit. The writing is usually nice and tight, and it approaches the ridiculousness of some situations with such a smirking self-assuredness (literally through the perpetual half-grin on Aaron Eckhart’s face) that you can’t help but giggle.
Eckhart plays Nick Naylor, a Washington, D.C. lobbyist for Big Tobacco. When we meet him, he’s fighting a number of wars: the constant PR war with the public; the all-out assault from a left-wing Vermont senator (William H. Macy) insistent on making an example of Naylor and his clients; a dip in cigarette sales forcing him to come up with new marketing platforms (or successfully resurrect old ones); convincing the former Marlboro Man (Sam Elliot), who is now dying from cancer, to drop his lawsuit and public blasting against his former employers; and most importantly, the battle with his ex-wife about how someone who defends a killer corporation can competently raise their thirteen-year-old son. All this while he also balances a semi-relationship with a print journalist writing a story about him – and sleeping with him to get all the best details. The film follows all of these through the end, with a few amusing side plots.
Read the rest at HBS!
* * * * (out of 5)
It’s been very difficult lately to get a laugh out of a crowd without going significantly over the top (re: high concept stuff like Wedding Crashers or The 40-Year Old Virgin). What makes Thank You for Smoking so very much fun is that it sits very smugly and confidently on the top, and every once in awhile jumps a little bit. The writing is usually nice and tight, and it approaches the ridiculousness of some situations with such a smirking self-assuredness (literally through the perpetual half-grin on Aaron Eckhart’s face) that you can’t help but giggle.
Eckhart plays Nick Naylor, a Washington, D.C. lobbyist for Big Tobacco. When we meet him, he’s fighting a number of wars: the constant PR war with the public; the all-out assault from a left-wing Vermont senator (William H. Macy) insistent on making an example of Naylor and his clients; a dip in cigarette sales forcing him to come up with new marketing platforms (or successfully resurrect old ones); convincing the former Marlboro Man (Sam Elliot), who is now dying from cancer, to drop his lawsuit and public blasting against his former employers; and most importantly, the battle with his ex-wife about how someone who defends a killer corporation can competently raise their thirteen-year-old son. All this while he also balances a semi-relationship with a print journalist writing a story about him – and sleeping with him to get all the best details. The film follows all of these through the end, with a few amusing side plots.
Read the rest at HBS!
posted by Matt S. at
4:12 PM
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