Not because it's a great movie: It more or less isn't because the story, which purports to be a polemic on Washington lobbying culture, likes to take turns into la-la land. Some examples:
- It assumes that everyone reads the Washington papers. In my experience, the only people who read the Post are politicians and other journalists.
- The lobbyist star of the show often sounds like someone sincerely telling it as it is. As a professional courtesy, you'd think they'd come up with something else.
- Senators in the show are often so stunned by the things said to them that they are left speechless. Yeah, right.
Now, if you're thinking, "But I don't want to see a Senator give his usual full of B.S. response," you'll probably enjoy Thank You for Smoking.
Despite its faults, the show moves fast and makes the points it's trying to make with nice and easy, blatant obviousness.
And it also deserves a libertarian high-five for making a big tobacco lobbyist a sympathetic character, while not shying away from the aspect of his job that is pure evil.
I thought later that the point of this film might have been to make you realize, in horror, that you supported the hero. If so, it's over my head, which isn't a hard place to get to.
Anyway, decent, often funny movie.
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