Review

by Dale Grauman

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'Smoking' Proves to be Bad for Your Morals

Truth and decency often fall by the wayside in the war of politics. Opposing agendas fight for supremacy. Director Jason Reitman smirks at the entire situation in "Thank You for Smoking," a satirical movie focused on the debacle surrounding tobacco politics.

Despite some funny characters and clever moments, the film doesn't quite deliver profound insights to clarify the moral morass.

Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart) is a tobacco lobbyist and vice president of the Academy of Tobacco Studies, an institution specializing in research's failure to discover harmful effects of tobacco use.

The protagonist you hate to trust, Naylor specializes in "arguing" the case for big tobacco. Explaining his job to his 12-year-old son, Joey (Cameron Bright), Naylor says, "If you argue correctly, then you're never wrong."

Naylor meets his match in Heather Holloway (Katie Holmes), a manipulative journalist from the Washington Probe newspaper. When the duo becomes romantically involved, Naylor leaks information involving a tobacco-sponsored Hollywood blockbuster designed to re-romanticize smoking.

Holloway publishes the juicy scoop, and Naylor's life overturns.

Memorable characters -- often caricatures -- appear throughout the movie. Naylor regularly meets with two other lobbyists,

mouthpieces of alcohol (Maria Bellow) and firearms (David Koechner). The club calls itself the "Ministry of Death" and debates over which member represents the deadliest interest.

Reitman adapted the screenplay from Christopher Buckley's novel and presents a smart script sprinkled with tongue-in-cheek gems.

Content issues will ruin this movie for many Christian audiences. Most of the characters swear like longshoremen. Naylor and Holloway become sexually involved after one date, and their escapades are depicted graphically, albeit without nudity. The film easily earns an R rating.

More unsettling than the vulgarity is the characters' lack of moral development and the film's failure to resolve the ambiguity surrounding the overtly political controversy.

Naylor avoids moral judgment but takes a stand during the congressional hearing and declares that people are ultimately responsible for their own decisions and therefore require moral education.

He does not seem to conclude that good moral education involves a disinterested pursuit of truth on his part. He continues working as a hired gun to convolute arguments.

Both sides of the tobacco issue argue by avoiding objective morality and misrepresenting their opponents' positions. Buried beneath layers of personal and political agendas, the message says, "Morality is ultimately a free-for-all."

"Thank You for Smoking" is well-written and maintains a playful tone throughout. However, smart writing does not necessarily translate into wisdom, and the film relies too heavily on shock value through crude language and situations.

I only recommend the movie to those specifically interested in tobacco, not to general Christian audiences or to sensitive moviegoers.

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