Thank You For Smoking

We went to see "Thank You for Smoking" earlier tonight. This movie is a satire on the Tobacco Lobbying industry. It is a sneaky, subtle, smart and very funny film. The movie was also completely unpredictable. I never quite knew where it was going, but I certainly enjoyed the ride. The biggest surprise to me is that the film did not seem to have any deeper meaning. (Or if it did, then I completely missed it.) I kept expecting to be hit between the eyes with some powerful message and it never came.



Aaron Eckhart played the lead role. He performed it very well. He played an arrogant, manipulative tobacco lobbyist with little or no morals. You know that he never quite believes most of what he says. Yet his character was a charming, funny, very likeable guy. I know that I am supposed to hate him and everything that he stands for, yet I ended up liking him. I can't understand it, I even ended up cheering for him and against the anti-smoking people. How can that be?



William H. Macy played the anti-smoking Senator from Vermont. I am a BIG fan of his. I can not remember a performance by him that was not excellent. This movie was no exception. Most of the rest of the cast was excellent as well. Robert Duvall, Rob Lowe, Sam Elliot, Adam Brody, JK Simmons and Maria Bello all gave strong performances. The one disappointment was Katie Holmes. Luckily, she had a pretty small and unimportant role.


In summary, I really liked "Thank You For Smoking". It is not a great movie. Just a very funny, well acted, enjoyable film. Nothing wrong with that!