#22

Hello everyone. Great news: Dido is going to release her new album in November. I'm really excited because of this. It's been 5 years since "Life for Rent" was released, so I hope "Safe Trip Home" is going to be as good as the first two albums were. And the best thing: If you go to Dido's homepage you will get "Look no Further", one of the tracks on the new album, for free until September 7th. So hurry.
But to get started:

Thank You for Smoking







Director: Jason Reitman ("Juno")

Cast: Aaron Eckhart ("Nick Naylor"), J.K. Simmons ("BR"), William H. Macy ("Senator Ortolan Finistirre"), Katie Holmes ("Heather Holloway"), Cameron Bright ("Joey Naylor"), Robert Duvall ("Captain")

Review: Nick Naylor is a lobyist for the tobacco industry. But he's not just a lobyist. He's the best lobyist. The first time we meet him he is on a talkshow persuading the audience and the rest of the participants of the discussion that the tobacco industry is not happy that a 17-year-old boy is dying of lung cancer, but that they are sad to loose a customer. And he is the clear winner of the discussion. When his son, who lives with his mother and only sees his father on the weekends, asks him why he is such a good lobyist Nick tells him that being good at discussions doesn't mean to be right, but to prove that the other person is wrong.
But the tobacco industry is still in trouble, because the senator of vermont, Ortolan Finistirre, is trying to put pictures of a skull and crossbones on cigarette packets to visualize the danger of smoking. When Nick and the senator are on a TV show a viewers calls and threatens to kill nick within the next week.
Meanwhile Nick is having an affair with Heather Holloway, a reporter of The Washington Globe. She is writing a story about Nick, but since she has "glorious tits" they end up in bed together more than once.
When Nick travels to California to meet with an Hollywood agent to make smoking sexy in movies again, he is called by the Captain, the last tobacco mogul. He tells him that Lorne Lutch, the Malboro Cowboy, is dying of lung cancer and wants Nick to go to him and give him money to shut him up.
Back in Washington, Nick is kidnapped after a weekly lunch with the M.O.D., the merchants of death, a group of lobyists working for the alcohol industy, the firearms industry and the tobacco industry. While his kidnappers tie him up in a van, they pave his body with nicotine patches to kill him, but Nick suvives since he was used to nicotine being in his blood. He was saved by cigarettes, but if he ever smokes again he will most propably die. After he returns from the hospital the article about is published and destroys his career since Holloway used everything Nick told her when they were having sex in her article. He attends the hearing about the pictures on the cigarette packets anyway and outguns Senator Finistirre by saying that if they put visual warnings on cigarettes, they should put visual warnings on the famous Vermont Cheddar Cheese as well, because more Americans die of heart attacks and other cholesterol linked death causes than of smoking.

"Thank You for Smoking" is an ethical dilema. On the one hand you totally symphatize with Nick's work, because he is a smart and charming guy and he is really convincing with words. On the other hand you ask youself if it really is morally ok to try and make the tobacco industry look good, since smoking is dangerous and bad for your health.
But besides from the sides of the moral medal "Thank You for Smoking" is a highly entertaining and funny movie with an interesting statement:
"Do what you love and think about everything yourself. Don't let other people think for you."
And this is the cleverness of the movie. It may have a controversial topic, but it makes you think on your own. And that's what makes good movies.
Apart from this the cast is really good for a movie with such a small budget. ($7,000,000 according to Numbers.) Aaron eckhart might not be the top earner in Hollywood, but he surely is very talented and has a unique presence on camera. William H. Macy and especially Robert Duvall are clearly the stars of the casts and their performances are solid as well, as is the performance of Katie Holmes in one of her last roles since she married Tom Cruise, which is a shame, because I loved Katie from the day I first saw "Dawson's Creek". Holmes has a natural beauty that is rarely found, I can only think of Natalie Portman, and I really like Katie's voice, which makes me feel good for some reason.
Another thing worth mentioning is the look of the movie. Even though everything looks a little bit too clean and perfect it has a very real and bright look.
One point to criticize are the dialoges. Some of them seem a little bit too artificial and sometimes unneccessary.
Nevertheless it can be said that "Thank You for Smoking" is a good, maybe very good, movie with the intention of making people think about the decisions they make in life.

8,3 out of 10 convincing lobyists