Thank You For Smoking
The new film Thank You For Smoking is a film about talking. Our main character, Nick Naylor, tells us that his job is to talk. And he does that pretty much throughout the entire film, never letting anyone do any thinking on their own. The beauty of this talking though is that he flatters you at the same time into believe that what he’s saying are the same smart conclusions you came to…or at least were going to come to.
Which is pretty much the way the film operates. The film glides through various facets of the smoking industry, from the lobbyists to the Congressmen to the tabacco barons and even the Marlboro Man himself. What the film leaves out strangely are the millions of smokers out there. Curiously no one in the film is seen lighting up. A film about smoking never makes the realities of smoking particularly real.
TYFS is a satire that never really hits hard because it isn’t willing to say things we didn’t already think. To enjoy this film requires a certain amount of patting yourself on your back. There are definitely laughs to be had, but the film doesn’t earn them with character or story. Nick’s son is a perfect example of a son who is there to cause Nick to examine his life, even as the son isn’t really given much to do other than be a smart ass (given that both the director and writer of the film were sons of famous men, is the character actually a stand-in?). There is little spark between Katie Holmes and Aaron Eckhart even though it’s supposed to be a passionate romance (I blame that on them taking out the Shot…you know what I’m talking about).
Eckhart is actually quite likeable though even though he plays Naylor as a cartoon. He has a carpetbagger grin that is charming precisely because it seems to tame his masculinity. This is no question his film, but it is weighed down with cinemtic style. Jason Reitman shoots the film like Fight Club-lite. Christopher Buckely’s prose feels largely untamed and somewhat condescending.
I should probably be happy that a film is dealing with a topic as serious as this in an entertaining way. But that was probably the worst part of the film. When I walked out, I didn’t need to think about the film at all. I realized that it wasn’t a terrible film but that it was certainly good for a few hits.
One cool part of the film: During a climactic montage, we get some Bach in the form of a swinging jazz rendition of his Art of Fugue. The Swingle Singers have a pretty light and fresh take on all kinds of music and they are pretty accurate with Bach too. Also, it was oddly appropriate since the Art of Fugue was arguably Bach’s last piece. In fact, sometimes it is played without an ending….so that you can hear where Bach died, in keeping with TYFS’s death theme.
