Thank You For Smoking

"Both sides of the political fence will feel royally skewered. All that's lacking is a warning from the Surgeon General: This film will make you laugh till it hurts... A big thank-you indeed for this acutely hilarious film version of Christopher Buckley's novel about a certain Dr. Spin and how he learned to stop worrying and love the butt. Directed and written by first-timer Jason Reitman, the generously gifted son of Ghostbusters impresario Ivan, Thank You for Smoking mines comic gold from a topic that's no laughing matter..."

"Here is a satire both savage and elegant, a dagger instead of a shotgun. "Thank You for Smoking" targets the pro-smoking lobby with a dark appreciation of human nature. It stars Aaron Eckhart as Nick Naylor, a spokesman for the Academy of Tobacco Studies. We meet him on "The Joan Lunden Show," sitting next to bald-headed little Robin, a 15-year-old boy who is dying of cancer, "but has stopped smoking." Nick rises smoothly to the challenge: "It's in our best interests to keep Robin alive and smoking," he explains. "The anti-smoking people want Robin to die.."

"This is the kind of comedy that gives you two meaty underhanded jokes for every big obvious guffaw. It doesn't add up to much more than that, but there's no earthly reason why it ought to..."

"As a slick, shallow and often very funny send-up, it's a surefire entertainment... the film unfolds episodically but at a pace that keeps it engaging, and it's full of marvellous performances..."

"The movie is amusing and clever but only skin deep. It lacks the acidity and rage of a satire such as "Network"..."

"Structural scrappiness aside, it remains a laudably amoral and superbly caustic comedy for those who like their satire strong and unfiltered..."

"He is, in other words, a nasty piece of work. But such is the cynical snap of Reitman's script that you find yourself rooting for Nick, wanting him to connect with his kid and escape the clutches of Katie Holmes' heartless reporter. In terms of story, Thank You... is pretty familiar territory, encompassing a kidnapping and a Supreme Court showdown. But as a clear-eyed dissection of the dirty business of public relations, where "if you argue correctly, you're never wrong", it is pretty much peerless..."