This was the funniest film I've seen in a long time. It's a satire about a big tobacco spokesman named Nick Naylor, played brilliantly by Aaron Eckhart. He's exceptional at what he does. He appears on a panel against a child dying of cancer and comes out ahead. He's divorced from his wife because she didn't like the influence his job and his moral attitude was having on their 12 year-old son. Nick narrates throughout the film. You want to like him and all you can do is laugh at how ludicris all the situations are. The problem is, they aren't that absurd.
Everyone in this film is jaded, it's why the satire works so well. Nick wants to have movies show smoking in a better light, like it was before only done villians and Europeans smoke, so he's off to Hollywood where he meets equally smarmy agent Rob Lowe. He frequently deals with a Senator's (William H. Macy) efforts to legistlate against smoking. He meets tobacco executives and the former Marlboro man (Sam Elliott) now dying of cancer. Once a week he commiserates with other "merchants of death" an alcohol lobbyist (Maria Bello) and a firearms lobbyist (David Koechner), competing on which product is harder to pitch. Katie Holmes is a reporter interviewing him for a story. He thinks what he says in bed with her is off-the-record, she thinks sleeping with him is a good way to get a story.
It's probably out of theaters now, but you need to put Thank You For Smoking on your rental lists.
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