THANK YOU FOR SMOKING

I had to go back and see this film a second time just to ensure that what I thought the first time was true...and it was. This is the funniest film I've seen in a few years! Comparable in tone to films like Election and Bad Santa (well...not as profane as Bad Santa, but it's certainly unapologetic). The characters are all expertly drawn in Buckley's novel of the same name and Reitman has plucked them off of the page and brought them to life with hilarious results. Eckhart is perfect. He's impossible to dislike despite his profession. Cameron Bright (Birth, Godsend) has never been better as he finally gets a role that's worthy of his acting chops. Then there's Maria Bello and David Koechner (Anchorman) who are part of the unholy triumvirate of the 3 of the biggest lobbies in our nation; big tobacco, alcohol, and firearms. Koechner gets a better role here than he did as Champ "Whammy" Kind in Anchorman, hilarious stuff. Adam Brody (The O.C), J.K. Simmons (Spider-man's J. Jonah Jameson), and Sam Elliot both have funny screentime for sure, but it's Rob Lowe who walks away with the "Judi Dench Award" for stealing a film with the smallest amount of screentime. Lowe's character (head of EGO entertainment Jeff Megall) is such genius! The way he's written, dressed, and most importantly played by Lowe makes his 3-5 minutes of total screentime some of the funniest of the last several years and certainly of his entire career...comic genius! Robert Duvall manages to get a few laughs as well...you'll never drink a mint julep again without thinking about The Captain. William H. Macy is, well, he's William H. Macy and he's great. While the cast deserves all the accolades they can be given for bringing the characters to life, credit cannot be taken away from it's rightful place. Jason Reitman has a difficult wall to scale with his career...the nepotism wall. But make no mistake, while his name might have gotten him a bit of influence here or there, he didn't use it as such. He did what all struggling filmmakers do and started out making shorts and then graduated to the feature. And the actors that did this film didn't do it because he's Ivan Reitman's son, they did it because they wanted to do a smart, entertaining film. And Reitman delivers, not just in writing the screenplay where he had to decide what parts of the book to leave out, but in the details of the film. Look for the sign behind Maria Bello's head, funny. Watch for the killer whale video...hilarious! Note the color of the pallbearers jackets in the funeral scene. See Eckhart get spit at on the Joan Lunden show, and check out Macy's syrup collection and sandals...all details that matter. This is a fantastic debut for Jason Reitman and in my opinion he's not only scaled the nepotism wall, he's hurdled it and is due all the credit for this one. I can't wait to see what he'll do next. If you haven't figured it out by this point...this is a must see...do it, now.
- veg