Thank You for Smoking (2006)

Does your support of a cause change if you like or dislike the face that cause? That is the question posed by Thank You for Smoking. It is the story of The Sultan of Spin, Nick Naylor. Nick is the public face of Big Tobacco. He goes on talk shows to meet with cancer victims; he debates Congressmen; he provides the press with snappy sound-bites about free choice and challenging authority. You are ready to dislike him-which is surely what the directors want you to feel. He is played by Aaron Eckhart and is cute, but kind of in a slick, car saleman-y way. You just don't want to like him. But you just can't help it and that is the theme of the movie.

Nick ends up coming off as a social rebel. You start to root for him. He admits that not everyone has the flexible morality to do his job. So he is not only representing what has come to be known as an evil force in society today, but he admits to a certain moral ambiguity about it. In one scene, he goes to career day at his son's school and ends up encouraging them to figure out if cigarettes are addictive for themselves and in another scene he confesses that if he can get one teen to talk up smoking he pays for his flights. He is unbelievable and a bit scummy; but yet, incredibly, you still end up liking him.

The story uses his son to teach us to like Nick, but it is an entirely unnecessary device. His son, Joey, played by Cameron Bright, is a flat character and primarily serves as a sounding board for Nick. Through discussions with his son, we learn how Nick justifies his job and what his true feelings are about being a lobbyist. We also learn that Nick wants to be a good dad, and although there is some minor animosity between Nick and his wife, played by Kim Dickens, it is not the focus of the story, and it is largely unconvincing. Nick doesn't seem to have a bad relationship with his son at all. They very close, and Joey never actively doubts his dad's character or reasons. He seems really caught up in the spin. I think that is where the director failed. This movie did not need the son at all. I really think that Nick is likable. We don't want to like him, but like the Cancer Boy that shakes his hand on the Joan show, we really can't help it.

Nick's nemesis is the Vermont senator, Ortolan Finistirre, played by William H. Macy. Macy's character is dramatically unlikable, despite his socially acceptable crusade against smoking. Even the most avid anti-smoking crusader could not like the Senator. The movie is not subtle about stacking the deck against him. He employs a weasel-y aide who stutters his way through his interaction with Nick on the Joan show, he wears sandals with socks, and he typically has a giant slice of Vermont cheddar cheese in the background. We just don't like him. We can't.

This is the most interesting question Thank You for Smoking poses: Does our support of a cause change if we like or dislike its representative? I don't smoke and would typically come down staunchly against smoking and the tobacco companies; but yet, I found myself rooting for Nick, and in essence, rooting against the Senator's absurd poison label anti-smoking campaign. The movie also employs some great little side features like little signs coming in over characters' heads or comments at the bottom of the screen. They don't overwhelm the movie; they just enhance the story's content in charming and creative ways. There are also a few nice artistic touches in the movie that really add to its merit. The offices of Big Tobacco, while luxurious, are decorated in nicotine brown. There are even a few scenes that seem to be filtered through a pale brown haze. Interestingly, none of the characters smoke. You never see Nick light up a cigarette, even though he professes to be a smoker. This is perhaps the most ironic way the movie ensures we like him. As Thank You for Smoking points out, smokers are not good guys in movies and this movie holds tightly to that concept. In their quest to ensure we like Nick, they would never sabotage that effort by letting him smoke. It crossed my mind at one point that this could be a movie financed by the current tobacco companies-kind of a force-us-to-like-their-rep movie, but the simple fact that he never lights up negates this possibility.

A lot happens in Thank You for Smoking that will keep you watching (Nick gets kidnapped by anti-smoking activists, has crazy sex with a reporter played by Katie Holmes, gets fired, etc.). Robert Duvall puts in a very convincing performance as the last of the Big Tobacco barons, complete with mint juleps and the hazy brown old boys club, and the trio of the MOD (Merchants of Death) Squad add some comedic depth to the story, but the ultimate confrontation with the Senator during the congressional hearing about tobacco seems to defeat the premise of the movie. Nicks appearance is a big win for Big Tobacco, but then, as if to satisfy our need to like him and still like ourselves in the morning, he leaves Big Tobacco to work for the cell phone companies. The most interesting question posed by Thank You for Smoking, Do we support causes because we like the people leading them?, is negated by Nick's move away from Big Tobacco.

Thank You for Smoking was a wholly entertaining movie with a rich, interesting lead character, some charming supporting characters, and a good story that poses a terrific question. It should have just allowed us to wake up in the morning feeling a little dirty for liking Nick so much.