Thank You for Smoking

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Written by david

Nick Naylor, chief spokesman for Big Tobacco, makes his living defending the rights of smokers and cigarette makers in today's neo-puritanical culture. Confronted by health zealots out to ban tobacco and an opportunistic senator who wants to put poison labels on cigarette packs, Nick goes on a PR offensive, spinning away the dangers of cigarettes on TV talk shows and enlisting a Hollywood super-agent to promote smoking in movies. Nick's newfound notoriety attracts the attention of both tobacco's head honcho and an investigative reporter for an influential Washington daily. Nick says he is just doing what it takes to pay the mortgage, but the increased scrutiny of his son and a very real death threat may force him to think differently...

A big thank-you indeed for this acutely hilarious film version of Christopher Buckley's novel about a certain Dr. Spin and how he learned to stop worrying and love the butt.

Directed and written by first-timer Jason Reitman, the generously gifted son of Ghostbusters impresario Ivan, Thank You for Smoking mines comic gold from a topic that's no laughing matter.

Aaron Eckhart is a fierce and funny dynamo as Nick Naylor, a tobacco lobbyist who enjoys comparing notes with Polly (marvelous Maria Bello) -- she sells alcohol -- and Bobby Jay (deadpan David Koechner) -- he hustles guns.

These Merchants of Death (the MOD Squad) verbally skewer the liberal do-gooders who'd like to hoist them on their own lethal petards.

Nick is the first among equals, despite the disdain of his ex-wife (Kim Dickens), who hates him inculcating their son (Cameron Bright) in his unholy crusade.

Nick should be smart enough to dodge hottie reporter Heather Holloway (Katie Holmes), but his dick leads him astray when she strips (note to prudes: Holmes shot the film before she became the pregnant future bride of Tom Cruise).

The movie reaches its peak when a tobacco tycoon (Robert Duvall), besieged by attacks from an anti-smoking senator (William H. Macy), sends Nick to Los Angeles to get Hollywood on the smoking bandwagon.

Superagent Jeff Megall (Rob Lowe is a hoot) tells Nick that for the right price -- roughly half the film's budget -- he can have Brad Pitt and Catherine Zeta-Jones light up after sex even though they're shooting a space epic. Another plus: Ethics never get in the way of the jokes.

Both sides of the political fence will feel royally skewered. All that's lacking is a warning from the Surgeon General: This film will make you laugh till it hurts.

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