Matt’s Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Thank You For Smoking (TYFS) is the movie adapted from the novel by Christopher Buckley. TYFS presents the mostly comedic life and times of a Big Tobacco lobbyist, Nick Naylor played by Aaron Eckhart, as he deals with his job, family, friends, and love life. He describes his talents of persuasion as being “the guy who can pick up any girl, on crack”. His lines are witty and well delivered, but not isolated to just him. The remaining cast is excellent: Robert Duvall, William H. Macy, J.K. Simmons, and (I’d say well-recognized, not excellent) Katie Holmes.

Interesting note about Katie Holmes in this movie. She was supposed to have a topless scene, but it was cut out, suspiciously close to when she started dating Tom Cruise. The sex scene itself is still there, but you never see her topless. If you really need a nude scene of Katie Holmes, check out The Gift. Her acting in TYFS wasn’t impressive and the director could have substituted a bag of flour for her w/ someone reading her lines from off camera.

The script was great with lots of humor, not all of it PC for sure, but still entertaining. For example, Nick’s circle of friends call themselves the MOD Squad, Merchants of Death, as they represent the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms corporations. There are some baby seal clubbing jokes peppered in as well. So you get the idea of its humor type.

It runs at just about 90 mins, but felt longer in a good way. I certainly enjoyed it and if you like gray comedies (not quite dark/black humor) then I think you’ll like it as well.