The last review from 2006 - Enjoy!
Thank You For Smoking (2005): 80
What I found most surprising about this little ditty was how deftly it avoided the preachy air of any other dagger-sticking anti-tobacco satire. In fact, despite the front and center product placement of cigarettes, the continuing debate, money at the cost of morality, etc., this satire really touched very little on those central issues and took a nice, energetic left turn into spin, perceptive control, dupe-ability and the skill of rhetoric. I think the film itself was bursting at the seams with energy but often let go of the reins; Adam Brody in particular was a little weak, and there were other moments (the "subtitled" sequence at the beginning) that lent an air of anything goes to the film that deflated fast; the energy was maintained, but the plot and or style fell into more familiar territory, rendering the early forays into goofiness gimmicky rather than provoking. Despite that, the energy was well-carried by the lead man Eckhart; he nailed this role in a serious way, the likable slimeball never feeling forced and his family man interactions great. SO while it turned into a wild, goofy bit of a movie that was a little bit uncontained, it also managed to use an absurd (and obviously intentionally so) plot as a platform for this notion: that the show in this day/age is bigger than the content, that the relative dangers or risks or deaths have no bearing at all, that it is the messenger who probably does need to be shot. The movie gave me an energetic look over the brink, and while this was a nasty, cynical look, the performances and film were delivered with such care that the wink wink message that came through was not a biting indictment of tobacco, but a biting indictment of sheepishness in general and some comfort that others can see the chaos, too.
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