Recco of the week: Thank You For Smoking

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Very few comedies in Hollywood are as smart and as clever as the film I'm going to recommend – Thank You For Smoking.

It's actually a satire that you need to enjoy on DVD in the confines of your room because it's one of those films that you have to "listen" to closely if you really want to enjoy it.

Now Aaron Eckhart plays Nick Naylor, a tobacco lobbyist, the chief spokesperson for Big Tobacco, and his job involves defending the rights of smokers and cigarette manufacturers.

Of course it's not an easy job what with an earnest senator proposing that the scariest possible warning label be affixed to all cigarette packs. Add to that the fact that teen smoking seems to have taken a dive.

So, it's now Nick's responsibility to persuade Hollywood studios to encourage cigarette-related product placement in the movies.

The film really tracks Nick who performs his job with the commitment and the righteousness of a social activist. We watch him as he spins stories and turns around the truth to suit his company's agenda.

But what's really interesting is his life off the job. His regular dinner dates with the "Merchants of Death" – an alcohol lobbyist and a fire-arms lobbyist who meet regularly to grumble about their lives and to brag about how many people their particular product kills off each year.

Also very interesting is Nick's relationship with his son and his growing influence on the young boy. You know, in all honesty, it's not a film I can easily explain in a few minutes, because it's so many things rolled into one.

What I can tell you for sure is that it's extremely well written and that's why it just grabs your attention completely. You have to watch that priceless scene when Nick visits his son's class on career day and cross-examines a little girl whose mother says cigarettes can kill you.

"Is your mother a doctor?" he asks her, and then encourages the kids to demand the right to make their own choices.

Then there's that scene when he's on a talk-show panel sitting next to a 15-year-old boy who's dying of cancer so he's given up smoking.

Nick takes the stage and completely turns around the debate when he says it's in everybody's best interest to keep the teenager alive and smoking.

"It's the anti-smoking people who want this boy to die," he declares.

Now, I'm going to recommend this film to anyone who likes their entertainment a little sharp. Of course, don't watch it if you have the attention span of a fly.

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#Hollywood #Thank You For Smoking #recco