Thank You provides biting satire, slapstick comedy

America is, indeed, living in spin. And Big Tobacco is a perfect model to use in order to support this assertion, which is exactly what Thank You for Smoking does.

Chock full of famous faces, including Maria Bello, Robert Duvall, Rob Lowe, William H. Macy, Sam Elliott and Katie Holmes, Thank You for Smoking is helmed by Aaron Eckhart as Nick Naylor, the most famous and infamous Big Tobacco lobbyist. His quick wit and slicing use of language allow him to continuously argue into the right, which reaps great rewards for his boss and Big Tobacco employers.

Yet the film is not about smoking, no matter how much the plot revolves around Naylor’s difficulty in promoting his product and even protecting his life from crazy anti-smoking radicals who at one point kidnap Naylor and poison him by overloading his body with nicotine patches. The film is about spin. And with television and other mediums relying so heavily on the use of spin, a comedic film that delves into the very nature of the practice provides a jostling and welcome exposition.

Naylor joins his two buddies from the Alcohol and Firearm businesses, making up the MOD (Ministers of Death) Squad that meets weekly discussing their comical troubles in promoting their products as well as bragging about their product’s corresponding death rates. Naylor’s son, Joey, acts as a foil for Naylor’s character as he juggles the needs of his job with the delving questions of his son. Various characters pose “moral” questions to Naylor in an attempt to discover the man behind this pillar of infamy; Naylor responds with slick avoidances and clever reversals.

Mixed with this world enveloped by spin, a bright and energetic slapstick comedy emerges from these pitiful and overdrawn characters. The excellent group of actors become characters in the film, playing out a series of events around Naylor that poke fun at the slant and use of the news, big movie executives and, of course, large corporations, repeatedly pointing out that global conglomerates need their protection too, just like a “cancer boy” on a daytime talk show.

Naylor takes no prisoners in his conquest to prove others in the wrong, as the film mirrors his tendency to say everything that most people think but never say. The director, Jason Reitman, son of Ivan Reitman, heavily stylizes the film with close camera work, especially on Eckhart, giving the characters straight and intense interaction with the camera, playing out like a news interview. He adds in multiple pop ups on the screen, interpreting the language that is spoken often as a politically correct smokescreen used in spin. The narration of Eckhart couples with these adjuncts nicely, forming a film unafraid to expose the spin on everyday language.

And while the film takes a serious look at the depth of deception in America, it also remains seriously funny throughout. The slapstick humor works well in discussing the often humorous spins that are used not only by Naylor, but by his opposition, Macy’s Vermont Senator, in achieving their specific goals. Thank You for Smoking stands as a humorous and thoughtful look into the world of spin and trickery.