"Thank You for Smoking" DVD Review (5/5) -Richard

Some movies make you squeamish, others make you laugh or cry, "Thank You for Smoking" makes you think.

At least it did for me. It had me thinking for hours. Big Tobacco is the enemy right? What about an overprotective government that wants to warn the public about the obvious or legislate prohibition? In the end everyone has their faults, flaws, shortcomings, honor and brilliance in Jason Reitman's adaptation of Christopher Buckley's "Thank You for Smoking."

Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart) is not a spin man, he is THE spin man, and his employer is "Big Tobacco." From the first five minutes you understand how good the man is. Turning the tragedy of a young teen with cancer, telling his tale on national television, into a win for his side and entirely humiliating a congressional aide (Todd Louiso) in the process.

Even the name "Nick Naylor" is powerful. There is a raw masculinity to it. The alliteration helps to punch the 'Nail her" in his last name. This is a character that men wish they were and women openly or secretly lust after. He is all that is man. Still, he is the Vice President of Tobacco Studies and the public face of tobacco, which makes him a generally hated man.

His boss, B.R. (J.K. Simmons), is jealous. He has Senator Ortolan Finistirre (William H. Macy) trying to do everything in his power to blame him for smoking deaths, the original Marlboro Man (Sam Elliot) is pissed that he is dying of cancer, Naylor's ex-wife and her boyfriend think that he is a bad influence, and the sexy reporter Heather Holloway (Katie Holmes) is trying to break a story on the tobacco industry.

The only real friends he has are Bobby Jay Bliss (David Koechner), the face of S.A.F.T.Y. (Firearms); Polly Baily (Maria Bello) of the Moderation Council (Alcohol); "Captian" (Robert Duvall), the last true giant of Tobacco; and his son Joey (Cameron Bright).

I am hard-pressed to find a bad performance in this movie. Simmons, Elliot, Macy and Duvall bring the film credence with their names and amazing talent; Holmes, Koechner and Bello were the fresh faces or lesser known actors that proved themselves. Rob Lowe, playing the Hollywood mega-agent Jeff Megall put in a great performance that was reminiscent of his character Sam on "The West Wing" with added confidence. Even young Cameron Bright did an amazing job as Joey Naylor. All that aside the real stand out performance came from Aaron Eckhart.

Jeff's Assistant in the movie explains that "Before Jeff, Matthew McConaughey was just a face. Now he is a name." That statement rings true for Eckhart in this film. This was his breakaway roll. Usually when you see a movie you can say, "(Person) was great in that, but what if the character were played by Deniro/Sean Connery/Batman." I could not say that coming away from this film. Eckhart nailed it. To me, he was Nick Naylor. And it was the first time I started saying, "Let's see THIS movie, I heard it has Aaron Eckhart," as opposed to being in the middle of it and going, "Hey, THAT GUY! What else has he been in?"

Another breakaway performance came from director Jason Reitman. This was his first feature film, and for someone's first film to be on my top 10 movie list of all time says something. His shots are inspiring, the music choice is superb and he demands the best from his performs. Even one as young as Cameron Bright. Don't get me wrong, Bright is a great childhood actor and I have seen him in some wonderful movies. I have also seen some pretty terrible ones as well, and getting a kid to put in a great performance I feel is a mark of a great director.

Overall this is one of my favorite movies. It is smart, political and funny while still being entertaining to mass audiences and not coming off as pretentious.

5/5