MYST Post #1: Thank You for Smoking

Thank you for Smoking is a movie that stars Aaron Eckhart (Harvey Dent in The Dark Night) as Nick Naylor, a lobbyist for Big Tobacco.  A master at debating, Naylor can convince an audience that a teenage boy with cancer should be smoking cigarettes, and thats what made watching the movie so enjoyable. Even though you should hate Nick Naylor, the way he's able to argue and twist the facts, and always win, makes him cool, and you end up rooting for him. Thank you for Smoking was directed by Jason Reitman for his first major movie ever. Since then he has directed popular movies like Juno, and Up in the Air, and while I haven't seen either of those movies (besides the clip we saw in class) and am definitely interested in seeing them now.  I personally really enjoyed the movie's satire and Eckhart's acting in it, and gave it an 8.8/10 since Thank You for Smoking was completely unique to any other movie I had watched before.  

My favorite scene in Thank You for Smoking, was when Nick Naylor, and his son drive to upstate California with tens of thousands of dollars in a briefcase to "buy off" and old Marlboro Man who has recently been diagnosed with lung cancer.  Seemingly set on denouncing Big Tobacco, Naylor again is put in a situation with no winning outcome.  However, Nick Naylor then tells the old Marlboro man has to do to blow up his public condemning of cigarettes: pour the money on the floor, get a certain member of the press, then donate all the money to charity with a 5k.  In this process the Marlboro man sees the money, has it dumped on his feet and then is told if he goes through with telling the press, he has to donate it.  Thus Nick Naylor again saves Big Tobacco's butt by suppressing a huge anti-cigarette news story.  This scene exemplifies the influence both Nick Naylor and money has on people, and it just seemed very real with great acting.

I thought the movies camerawork was good, and while the movie didn't really do anything fancy, it didn't need to since Thank You for Smoking was more dialogue than anything.  My favorite editing, was immediately before and after my favorite scene mentioned above. While driving to the Marlboro Man's house we see a shot of the backseat of the car, showing only the briefcase full of cash.  At the end of the scene in the above paragraph we don't find out if he decided to take the money or not, the next shot is of the backseat, this time without the briefcase.  While it was pretty obvious that the man was going to take the money, I thought the sequence of the shots confirmed it in a cool way.  As mentioned earlier the movie was very satirical and the whole movie seemed to be a joke, even in the more serious parts.  

*Random Fact: Not once throughout the movie do they show someone smoking.