Thank You For Smoking (2005) July 3, 2007
Posted by gproject in : Recently Viewed , trackbackDirected by: Jason Reitman
Thank You For Smoking presents an unlikely subject for a movie, but it’s certainly one that provokes thought on the question of seeing someone’s job as an extension of who they are. Is it right to be proud of what you do if you do it well? What if your job is something that society deems as ‘bad’ – do you still have that same right?
That’s the question the plot tries to tackle through its central character, Nick Naylor, a tobacco industry lobbyist who spends most of his time defending the cigarette business with his twisted logic and argumentative skills. It’s difficult work, but it’s the one thing that Naylor is actually very good at. His personal life has gone slightly awry and a separation from his wife means that he finds it hard to connect to his son, Joey. Meanwhile, when a news reporter manages to ‘out’ all of his secrets in an article, Nick finds himself fighting against more than just his ethics.
It’s an undeniably funny picture and one that certainly takes a skewed look on things both in terms of subject and style. The story makes use of that often-dreaded narrative technique: voice-over narration. But luckily, its addition is very well handled and certainly in keeping with the tone of the film. Plus it doesn’t hurt that the movie boasts a fantastic cast including Aaron Eckhart, J.K. Simmons, Maria Bello, David Koechner and William H. Macy, alongside excellent smaller roles for Todd Louiso, Robert Duvall, Katie Holmes, Adam Brody and Rob Lowe.
There’s great use of the frame by director Jason Reitman (son of Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman) in his first feature outing. His ability to make the mostly dialogue-driven scenes interesting really helps give a unique stylised look to the film. He even breaks pan-and-scan framing conventions by positioning characters on extreme edges of the screen at times. It’s very refreshing to see a film of this nature shot in a way that you wouldn’t expect – especially working on a tighter-budget comedy, which can sometimes lead to ‘point and shoot’ direction, with the emphasis being on the performances.
Reitman also wrote the screenplay based on the novel by Christopher Buckley, and has produced a sharp and witty script which comes to life through the great cast. If there’s one criticism to be made it’s that there’s not a great deal of progression in the narrative, and by the end you don’t feel that much has really altered. This may well be a stylistic choice, or something carried over from the source novel, but as a movie it’s just lacking a solid through-line - something to stop it feeling like you’re just watching a series of events.
Still, the exchanges (particularly Eckhart’s) are fast and funny, the characters are interesting - particularly from a traditional ‘protagonist’ point of view, and the story might well make you think about the kind of difficult jobs people do. It’s not a message movie though, just a character piece that happens to focus on potentially awkward professions. The skill is in the way it finds the humour in their situation and brings it to the fore through great characterisation and smart dialogue.
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