This frequently funny adaptation of
Christopher Buckley’s satire about a tobacco lobbyist maintains the main
character’s sharp edge.
First-time director Jason Reitman does an excellent job with
this adaptation of Christopher Buckley’s satirical novel. Aaron Eckhart plays a
highly successful tobacco lobbyist. In the opening sequence he’s getting booed
on a TV talk show. (Of course his client doesn’t want people to die, he
tells them. Bad for business.) On a given day he might be in Washington, where
a powerful senator (William H. Macy) wants to subpoena him, or Winston-Salem,
where the ailing head of his firm (Robert Duvall) is dying from his own
products, or even Hollywood, where he hopes a studio executive (a hilarious Rob
Lowe) will help him make smoking cool again. He could be swapping strategies
with his counterparts in the alcohol and firearms industries (when they’re not
debating whose product kills more). He could even be explaining himself to his young son, if his day to care for the boy.
This is frequently funny, and the reason it
works is that, while Eckhart makes the character likeable, Reitman resisted the
urge to make him too nice. He knows what he does, so a moral epiphany in
the middle of the movie would be beside the point. Why defend Big Tobacco?
Well, the challenge. Whether you’re the lobbyist or the senator, whether your
cause is just or not, you want to beat the other guy. This movie doesn’t reveal
much about the tobacco industry or even lobbyists, but it does reveal a lot
about human nature.
posted 9/6/13
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