Thank You For Smoking (2006), Jason Reitman, C
Surprisingly flat. It just lays there dead on the screen. And it is too bad because the source material is funny. (I haven’t read the book, but you can just tell.) The only one doing anything worthwhile is Rob Lowe. Feh. Disappointing. A couple o’ laughs, though, sure. But after recently seeing quality satire with Charlie Wilson’s War that ain’t enough.
Finally, someone else sees through all the smoke and bluster about this one. A satire has to have bite, dammit! This one felt thoroughly de-fanged. And such a rich target too. Maybe too rich…made everyone lazy. Like “Network for Dummies” or something. And playing the apologist angle with Eckhart’s character (i.e. he’s a good father so it’s all OK in the end) didn’t help matters much.
Comment by burchkid — December 21, 2007 @ 2:07 pm