'Smoking' looks at 'spin' ethics

THANK YOU FOR SMOKING — *** 1/2 — Aaron Eckhart, Cameron Bright, Katie Holmes; rated R (profanity, sex, drugs, vulgarity, violence).

"Thank You For Smoking" is not the pro-smoking film its title suggests. But neither is it an anti-smoking diatribe.

This adaptation of Christopher Buckley's best-selling novel doesn't really come down on either side of the smoking debate but approaches its subject as a dark satire that examines the morality and ethics of so-called spin doctors.

It's also a smart, funny and often perceptive work that bodes well for the future career of screenwriter/director Jason Reitman, the son of comedy filmmaker Ivan Reitman ("Stripes," "Ghostbusters," etc.).

"Smoking" is also a huge career step forward for Brigham Young University graduate Aaron Eckhart, who stars as Nick Naylor, the leading spokesman for Big Tobacco.

Nick has an impressionable preteen son, Joey (Cameron Bright), who looks up to him. But that doesn't stop him from doing some pretty reprehensible things on behalf of his corporate bosses.

He's assigned to help broker a settlement with Lorne Lutch (Sam Elliott), a former cigarette-ad billboard star, who's now dying of lung cancer, which is complicated by his relationship with Heather Holloway (Katie Holmes), an investigative reporter looking into his career.

Holmes isn't really convincing in her role, and she's clearly the weak link in this cast, which features so many talented, funny performers — such as William H. Macy as a U.S. senator with an ax to grind against Nick, Maria Bello and David Koechner as Nick's fellow "merchants of death," and Rob Lowe as a Zen Hollywood producer. Wily old pros Elliott and Robert Duvall are also here but with limited screen time.

But Eckhart still manages to be the standout in the lead role. He turns an oily unlikable character into such a charismatic guy that you almost wind up rooting for him. And Reitman's direction is sure-handed, though the quick pacing and machine-gun-fire bursts of dialogue do mean that repeat viewings may be required to catch all the jokes and references.

"Thank You For Smoking" is rated R for frequent use of strong sexual profanity, simulated sex and other sexual contact, some drug content (including abuse of nicotine patches), some crude humor and references and some violence (including a kidnapping). Running time: 91 minutes.

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E-mail: jeff@desnews.com