Thank You For Smoking

We watched Thank You For Smoking this evening. It is a biting and innovative romp into the world of big tobacco and spin control. However, because of my obsession with how people use language--Thank You For Smoking demonstrates, albeit wittily, how manipulative language can be and how the word "truth" does not resonate with the same meaning it once had.

Nick Naylor, the sharp-tongued tobacco lobbysist (slyly portrayed by Aaron Eckhart), displays an uncanny level of rhetorical skill. He warns the audience early in the movie with a well-placed voice-over: "You know the guy who could get any girl? I'm him...on crack." Naylor reminds us that the truth can be painted as an illusion with a reframing and reposturing of words; "Remember," he tells his son, "You don't have to be right to win an argument."

Rhetorical dancing aside, the movie is an enjoyable, dialogue-heavy exploration into how we think, act and spin perspective so we can understand the world around us.

Delightful...3 stars out of 4.