Smoking Advisory

I went to see Thank You For Smoking this afternoon. I thought this was a fairly mainstream kind of movie. I'd seen trailers for it front of two or three other very mainstream movies over the past few months. But it turned out that no... the distributors really think of it as an art house flick. And so that's where I had to see it, at one of the local "art house" cinemas with the freaking uncomfortable, tiny chairs. (I guess I should at least be grateful I live in a city where I can refer to art house cinemas in the plural.)

Anyway... the movie. This is the tale of a tobacco lobbyist on a journey to expand smoking in the movies, and teach his young son good values -- the value of arguing a case well.

Unfortunately, this was a case where all of the funniest parts were spoiled in the trailer. They still made me snicker, and there were still a few other laughs sprinkled throughout. The cast was great. But I think my expectations were a little too high.

It did do a fairly good job, I think, of being a "message movie" without cramming the message down your throat. They subtly had a movie about smoking in which you never see a single character smoke a cigarette. The makers of the movie are able to make their points with and within the characters they establish.

In all, I give it a B. It's worth a look, assuming you live in a place where you're able to catch it without too much hassle.