The movie “Thank You for Smoking” is now available on DVD and it is definitely worth adding to your NetFlix list or taking a trip down to your local rental store or whatever it is you do to watch movies these days. If you want a movie that will repeatedly make you laugh out loud while also making you think with devastatingly biting writing and outstanding comedic performances than you need look no further than this movie. While much of this has to be slightly over-stated for comedic purposes you know that there is much truth hidden here.

“Thank You for Smoking” tells the story of Nick Naylor who is also known as the Sultan of Spin. He works for the big tobacco companies and he does what he can to spin the negative aspects of smoking and the detrimental effects of smoking into something positive. For example, in the opening scene as he sits next to a boy who is maybe sixteen and has been smoking since he was a pre-teen and is now dying of cancer he makes a surprisingly valid point. Why would big tobacco want to kill this young man? They are losing a customer. The anti-smoking people, however, want this boy to die because in his dying he furthers their cause. Now THAT’S spin.

Naylor meets regularly with two other lobbyists and they call themselves the MOD Squad. MOD stands for Merchants of Death. Maria Bello plays the lobbyist for the alcohol companies who dreads the fact that 60 Minutes is running a report about fetal alcohol syndrome. His other friend is played by David Koechner who is the lobbyist for the anti-gun control people. He, right now, is trying to deal with yet another disgruntles postal worker who has gone berserk and offed some of his co-workers. They meet, have dinner and discuss strategies and compare who has the larger death toll.

Meanwhile William H. Macy turns in another outstanding and comedic performance as a Vermont senator who is trying to pass legislation that will require a skull and crossbones to be placed on every pack of cigarettes. You see he feels it’s unfair to want to kill the people who don’t speak English because they can’t read the wording on the other warnings. Macy sits behind a desk covered with maple syrup bottles of all shapes and sizes.

Naylor works for a company that is supposedly created to study the effects of smoke on people. This company has been in existence for thirty years, was created by the tobacco companies and has managed to, for thirty years, prove that there is no correlation between cigarette smoke and cancer and other diseases. As Naylor himself admits of the scientist in charge he is “brilliant.”

J.K. Simmons, he of J. Jonah Jameson in “Spider-Man,” is Naylor’s boss. They come up with the idea that they need to get celebrities in movie to start smoking again. Off goes Naylor to meet with Rob Lowe, who plays a superstar agent. Lowe is also hilarious as a man who only wants to make a deal and doesn’t care about the consequences. Eckhart and Lowe play convincing characters as they discuss that they cannot get superstars to smoke in a movie set in modern times. However, if it were a period piece set in the past when everyone smoked or perhaps in the future when smoking would be made safe again…wellllll….

Katie Holmes even shows up and puts in a decent performance of a sexy reporter bent on getting the story behind Naylor. Cameron Bright plays Naylor’s son and he turns in an outstanding performance. He understands what his father does and he evidently has some of his father’s talents. When his father shows up at his school on career day, before his father goes up to speak, he begs his father to “not destroy my childhood.” Naylor then skillfully defends his position when told by a young girl in the class that her mother says smoking is deadly. “Is your mommy a doctor?” he asks.

There is a definite note of deep cynicism of this movie. However, one scene leads seamlessly into another. The movie is put together beautifully and keeps you hurtling forward. There is an interesting note that not a single person is shown smoking or holding a cigarette throughout the entire movie. The closest you get is a scene involving nicotine patches and that turns out to be played for comedic purposes. Also, Robert Duvall turns in a brief performance as The Captain, a man who is legendary as an advocate for tobacco. He wields a cigar at one point.

The movie is full of well-timed jokes. The performances are all spot-on and that even goes for Katie Holmes who has, at times, been rather jarring for me in other performances. The writing is crisp and intelligent and witty. This is not a movie that resorts to scatological humor to get its point across. There is also not a single scene of someone wrestling another man while nude.

Somewhere along the way, in Hollywood, comedies became an attempt to throw as many jokes at you at once as could possibly be fired. It’s like loading a cannon with grapeshot and firing it at a group of marching soldiers. You throw as many as you can and see what sticks. Those that don’t you just ignore and hope that more sticks than doesn’t. This becomes a way for writers to find a way out of writing decent comedy. Rather than carefully crafting humor or creating humorous situations you just need a bunch of quick jokes in rapid succession. “Thank You for Smoking” takes the time to let its jokes build. I feel this makes the laughter more rewarding.

Of course you know there is truth behind this story. Despite the payouts big tobacco has had to make in recent years you know they still have spin doctors out there. They put out ads telling people about the dangers of smoking while still putting ads in magazines telling you how great their cigarettes are. More and more of them seem to be selling towards younger and younger people. You get them hooked young and then maybe you can get thirty years out of them before the smoke finally kills them. I am sure tobacco companies loved the idea of the cigar bar and the popularity of cigars that swept the country for a while.

In the end this is a very good and smart piece of comedy. It is a movie that should be seen by adults as it is a comedy made for adults and made for adults who are intelligent and capable of thinking. It is also a satirical and biting look at the inside of spin-doctoring and how companies and organizations can use people, words and images to make their policies a reality and affect legislation.

Bryan W. Alaspa’s novel Dust is available in print and eBook format at www.bryanalaspa.com and www.amazon.com.