I've actually tried to review this film three times now. The first time Pagebuilder ate my work (no surprise there), the second I just took a look at it and decided it wasn't up to the standard I'd set for a new contributor, let alone myself (no ego, I'm just really picky about my work). Given that I saw the film over two weeks ago now might colour my review but I'm going to give it a go anyway, it's a good film that deserves to be seen by a wide audience. The basic premise seems simple enough: bad man sees the error of his ways and changes for the better. It's one of Hollywood's most cherised cliches. Once you get under the skin of the movie though you soon see that this is not the case at all, that the main character and most of his foils are not black and white, and that quite a few of them see no reason to mend their ways.
Aaron Eckhart plays Nick Taylor, a genius in marketing and an employee of the spurious Academy of Tobacco Studies, little more than a front for Big Tobacco. He's good at what he does and, what's more, he enjoys it. He takes great pleasure in being able to sell the unsellable, to piss off the do-gooders campaigning against cigarettes. Despite not living with his wife and child anymore he still seems on top of things, imparting to his son (the disturbingly unexpressive Cameron Bright) his wisdom on debate and argument, the key facets that he lives his life by. Into this stable mix comes zealous senator Ortolan K. Finistirre (William H. Macy) and sexy reporter Heather Holloway (Holmes, making another unspectacular turn in a major movie). The scene is set for a shake-up in the life of Mr Taylor.
Now what I like about this movie is that it takes a fairly clear stance against smoking without ever seeming like a propoganda broadcast. Characters on both sides of the fence are seen doing what they believe is right, while simultaneously engaging in some pretty shady activities. Taylor himself seems to do the job for the satisfaction of triumphing against all odds, though at the same time taking a sick pleasure in being the cause of more deaths in the US than guns and alcohol combined. By the same token it is interesting to note that actual smoking is not shown once throughout the entire film. Despite the plot being dominated by it you almost never see a cigarette at all.
Despite this though the film is pretty much a straightforward morality play, albeit with a twist. Taylor's association with his son forces him to at least question his role in big tobacco's evil schemes, and his dalliance with reporter Heather puts everything he has worked for in peril. It is at this point that he has to make the decisions which will benefit him and and his family the most, no matter what they might be. Thank You For Smoking is a pretty good film, this is a pretty bad review. |
