Thank You For Smoking

The MOD squad as they refer to themselves in the film are Bobby Jay (Koechner), Polly (Maria Bello) and Nick (Eckhart). MOD stands for Merchants of Death. They have self appointed their little group of three this because of the organizations they represent. Bobby Jay represents the Firearms community, while Polly is on Alcohol duty, but Nick is with Big Tobacco. They convene once a week to discuss how many people their products have killed and some of the sob stories that made the news in the recent week. Lawsuits that have been filed and the weakness of the the Human emotion that is greed. Money solves everything. At least that is what Nick Naylor believes. These 3 not only represent these organizations, but speak solely on their behalf when a problem arises. They invite the press or leave them, depending on the angle they can use. They use quick tactics, and shady doings to keep people quiet. Not shady so much, but as I said before Greed. They use greed against the person giving them issues at the time. Sacks of money is enough for anyone to redact their story / lawsuit / and bad mouthing of anything. Am I wrong? Nick loves his job and he doesn't care that he is called a murderer to his face. He simply states that people can make their own choices and all the warnings and info are up front and easy to read. He can spin anything to sound any way he needs it to. He can get people to change their mind within 30 minutes of meeting him. He has saved the Tobacco industry bazillions of dollars with his silver tongue. Nothing is a problem because he does a good job of keeping his work life and personal life separate. He has a son with his ex wife that he spends every other weekend with. His son is 13 or so and smart enough to realize what is going on. As much as Nick tries to keep his son in the dark about what he does, eventually the questions begin. Nick may lie bend the truth for his paycheck, but he will never tell his son a lie or a half truth. He still believes in honesty. His son feels he needs more so he asks to go along to one of the people suing them. It happens to be the man who was the Marlboro Man from the 70's. He is played by Sam Elliot - Perfect choice, and he is dying from years of product use. Nick takes his son into the situation and shows him how it is done, but something changes for Nick. Maybe he feels he has sold the BS for so long he can't even tell when he is "Normal Nick" or "Working Nick". He begins to dissect his entire life and it turns from a comedy about the death of billions of people into a dark drama about Nick's choices and what lies ahead. Will he continue on this path or try and change for the benefit of his son? I remember the first time I watched this. I was absolutely floored. I was laughing at how convincing he would be in his arguments, but at the same time you kind of think "Hmm, that actually makes sense." It is very up front with numbers and figures being spouted off every other scene about the number of lives lost, but it never feels like an "agenda movie." The brilliant Ivan Reitman's son, Jason, directs this superb film, and it's not a film I will purposely put in from time to time, but if I come across it on a movie channel I will watch at least 20 minutes of it, if not more. The speeches and dialogue are something to cherish. Writing this clever does not come along very often, so I say embrace it for what it is. A really great movie....and Robert Duvall is also in it.

NBM rates Thank You For Smoking - Phenomenal