Thank You For Smoking

Rating: M - Contains Sex Scenes & Offensive Language.
Duration: 88 mins.
Genre: Political Comedy.
Actors: Robert Duvall, William H. Macy, Katie Holmes, Rob Lowe, Aaron Eckhart, Maria Bello, Sam Elliott, J.K. Simmons, Adam Brody, Cameron Bright, David Koechner.
Director: Jason Reitman.
Release Date: Available Now.

Synopsis
Truth is a commodity, and Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart) is paid big money to spin the truth. He’s on a mission to make us forget the dangers of smoking, and there is no one better at it than Naylor.

Of course there are plenty of people out to get him, kill him or expose him, but Nick Naylor take it all in his stride.

Until he meets Heather Holloway, and lets his guard down…

The Reality
Thank You For Not Smoking makes the assumption that we already know that smoking is dangerous for your health, and uses this to its advantage. An over the top dark comedy that will have you laughing at the absurdity of the situations and characters, whilst at the same time wondering just how much of what you hear in real life is actually the truth.

Using humour, improbable situations and loveable characters, with no real assertion as to who is the real bad guy, Thank You is a wild ride that pokes fun (and points the finger) at big tobacco, liquor, gun manufacturers, obesity, politics, newspapers, talk shows, broken families, in fact no one is really safe.

Broadly based on Christopher Buckley’s book about the abuse of truth, Thank You is a timely classic that illuminates the role of truth in modern society and begs us to ask the question; how far should we control or distort the truth?

The Look
Thank You is a classy product. Possibly not a big budget Hollywood blockbuster in styling, but just look at the list of actors; It’s a solid and authentically memorable movie, not only for the message, but for the passionate acting of the key players.

The sets and locations run in harmony with the script, and everything looks normal. It looks just like you’d imagine it would.

It just feels right, believable, just like all the lies we believe every night at 6 O’clock.


Food for thought
If truth is a commodity, what can we do to place more value on authenticity?

Rent or buy?
Thank You is worth watching again, buy it!