Thank You For Smoking

Ok, so I went to the movies with my sweetie on Saturday. We had planned on going to the 8:40 showing but we dozed off and didn't wake up til 9. We thought we'd just skip the movies but there happened to be a 10:40 showing of Thank You For Smoking.

We got ready to go and jumped in the car... only to hit EVERY red light on the way to the theater. It was 10:35 and we still had about 3 miles to go. I panicked a little bit because I'm a sucker for movie trailers and I felt them slipping away. I was beginning to think this was the Universe's mean April Fool's Day trick on M and me. But I stood my ground and decided to miss the trailers. And man, that movie was SSOO worth it!

I predict that Thank You For Smoking will be nominated for some kind of Oscar. Not cinematography, not best actor, not even one of those weird technical ones either. But it is a the shining beacon for best screen adaptation so far. Dudes, that movie rocked. It was laugh-out-loud funny and so compelling!

Don't get me wrong, it had its bad points. I mean, Katie Holmes is in it. She plays a trampy newspaper reporter. But since I knew that going into the theater, I just imagined Claire Danes every time Katie was onscreen. (Dude, Katie Holmes needs to be de-hypnotized and de-Cruised big time.... but that's another blog posting.)

The movie is a satirical comedy about the tobacco industry and those who are hired to paint a happy face on it. It also ties in the alcohol and firearms industry. When those controversial industries are faced with a lawsuit or called out on a talk show, someone must defend them... and this is the movie about those defenders. I am not a cigarette smoker, but I surprisingly found myself rooting for this low, depressing man who defended the tobacco industry. Then, I found myself loathing the tobacco industry. I walked out of there wondering how anyone could ever light up again.

So my sweetie and I left the theater along with the tons of people that also enjoyed the movie. As soon as we stepped outside, I counted TEN people lighting up a ciggy. WTF?? Were they not paying attention? Didn't they get it? W. T. F. ??

Anyway, catch the flick if you can. And for the love of Pete, please don't smoke.