Being a satire and based on a novel, Thank You For Smoking has the benefit of not beating the audience over the head with its point. That point: cigarettes are bad for you, but we're relentless sold on them and told otherwise anyway.
What could have, at worst, been a two-hour PSA is instead one of the most witty and incisive movies of its time, using every bit of Aaron Eckhart's cynical charm to make the movie work in a way that you wouldn't have suspected it would.
The tale of an unrepentant cigarette industry warrior, spreading disinformation for the cause and living large, takes a turn as betrayal almost topples our villain/hero, who still manages to remain amoral and save his own skin and his son's burgeoning respect for his father's intellectual trickery.
An exceptionally dark fable of one man's fall and rise back to his place, it doesn't bother to make you try to dislike it's despicable characters, instead daring the audience to love them as they bilk the public and escape from ramifications by sheer strength of will and uncanny knack for circular logic. Eckhart's Nick Naylor goes far beyond "antihero", instead appearing as completely reprehensible but lovable and we feel for him as he goes about his war on the public conscience.
The acting is, of course, superb, with Eckhart being backed by J.K. Simmons, Maria Bello, David Koechner (at his least annoying), Katie Holmes, Robert Duvall, and William H. Macy. Even Cameron Bright, as his son, manages to break away from his career of playing the flat, creepy, dead-eyed kid and gives a lively and intelligent performance.
Though it will likely not end up on your all-time-favorite movie list, there is very little not to like about the powerful and funny little film. It would be a crime to miss this film.
