Thank You for Smoking

Lacking any true psychological depth, Jason Reitman's Thank You for Smoking (2005) is a confident but never truly pentrating character study. While Aaron Eckhart owns the smarmy and despicable character Nick Naylor cold, the film struggles to match the intensity of the lead performance, and ultimately limps to an ending that is contrived even as it's satirically enjoyable. And so goes this film; it's a fun ride that goes nowhere or challenges, but instead merely entertains. On the basis of entertainment, it succeeds but any intellectual sophistication is marginal at best.

And this film possesses the chance for a good political and social commentary on the falseness of politicians and public relations policing a product not for truth, but instead only in order to neutralize truth. The Mod Squad bits are probably the best, where Naylor has dinner with alcohol lobbyist (Maria Bello) and a firearms rep (David Koechner) allowing for a degree of depth and ingenuity that the rest of Reitman's script ignores.

This film, like others before it, channels the ol' kid who's smarter than his parents syndrome, which is nauseating and a trend that should be put down before it can do any more damage. This bit of father-son bonding seems a little too prescripted and devoid of "reality," and so the ability to buy these scenes is a little too slim. The strength of this film, though, lies with Eckhart, who delivers a continuation of the masterful characterization of In the Company of Men. It's a great performance that salvages a script that is too pacifying to be savage.

As a result, though this film never sermonizes, nor does it ever truly become engaging. Instead, despite bravura acting from Eckhart, it's ultimately as slight as the pun of the title.

Thank You for Smoking: 6.5/10