Humor fills 'Thank You for Smoking'

If you think the movie is funny, read the book.
By CHRIS HEWITT
ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS
You can count the good guys in "Thank You for Smoking" on its permanently flipped middle finger.
An irreverent comedy about a likable lobbyist for Big Tobacco whose job requires him to encourage sixth-graders to give smoking a try, "Thank You for Smoking" is based on Christopher Buckley's uproarious novel of the same title. The movie is funny, but not as funny as the book because it lacks Buckley's unique voice and because the 11 years since the book came out have blunted its story about a man so charming that he could sell cigarettes to Yul Brynner on his deathbed.
Aaron Eckhart (the ponytailed boyfriend from "Erin Brockovich") is excellent as Nick, the ciggie-butt apologist who meets regularly with a gun flack and a booze flack to compare notes on whose products are the most lethal. Most of the humor comes from that sort of outrageousness, from the gap between the characters' lies and what we know to be true.
Cheap jokes
Too often, though, the movie settles for cheap jokes. Let's face it, an amoral tobacco lobbyist is an easy target for satire, and the movie's other targets -- Hollywood shallowness, sixth-graders' dopey speeches -- are even easier (rent "Citizen Ruth" if you're interested in a satire that gets bigger laughs with bigger risks). That so many of the jokes do land is a result of the efforts of a cast that is like a best-supporting-actor reunion (William H. Macy, Robert Duvall, J.K. Simmons, Sam Elliott, Adam Brody), under the guidance of directing newcomer Jason Reitman.
In a scene in which Reitman cuts between Nick's kidnapping by terrorists and his son giving a speech about what makes America great, the director gives the movie an energy and intelligence that isn't always there in his script. Making connections between seemingly unconnected things, establishing tone, guiding us toward surprising relationships without spelling them out -- these are the some of the things a talented director brings to the table and that suggest Reitman could be a unique new voice in movie comedy.