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Year One
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Thank You for Smoking
EMAILPRINTFox Searchlight Pictures

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 36 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 82 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Comedy | Drama
Written by:
Jason Reitman
Christopher Buckley (novel)
Directed by: Jason Reitman
Release Date:
Theatrical: March 17, 2006
DVD: October 3, 2006
Running Time: 92 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for language and some sexual content
Starring Aaron Eckhart, Maria Bello, Cameron Bright, Adam Brody, Sam Elliott, Katie Holmes, William H. Macy, Robert Duvall, and Rob Lowe
Thank You for Smoking is a fiercely satirical look at today's "culture of spin." The hero of the film is Nick Naylor (Eckhart), chief spokesman for Big Tobacco, who makes his living defending the rights of smokers and cigarette makers in today's neo-puritanical culture. (Fox Searchlight)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Juno
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
A sly, smart and very funny caricature of corporate politics and image culture.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
The razor-sharp satire Thank You for Smoking is the wittiest dark comedy of the year thus far. It has appeal to all sides of the political spectrum.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
The first film in a long time with a true gift of gab. A lot of the time people actually talk fast in it. Its wisecracks actually crack wise.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Here is a satire both savage and elegant, a dagger instead of a shotgun.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Both sides of the political fence will feel royally skewered. All that's lacking is a warning from the Surgeon General: This film will make you laugh till it hurts.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
It's more fun than a turkey shoot. It's also one of the most entertaining riffs on American culture in years.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
Much like his father Ivan (Ghostbusters), first-time director Jason Reitman has a broad, anything-goes comedic sensibility that allows silly gags and incidental humor to sneak in alongside the satirical barbs.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
A very smart and funny movie directed by Jason Reitman, who also shrewdly adapted the screenplay from Christopher Buckley's savagely satiric novel.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
It's got a bust-out performance from Eckhart that's worth remembering.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
Really a blistering satire about spin and the manipulation of the media.
Read Full Review >Premiere Glenn Kenny
This is the kind of comedy that gives you two meaty underhanded jokes for every big obvious guffaw. It doesn't add up to much more than that, but there's no earthly reason why it ought to.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
Like its protagonist, the movie is smart, soulless, glib, and utterly charming -- just the thing to warm up a movie season that's been late to bloom.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
A glib satire with a slick surface, lots of snappy patter and nothing to sell but its own cleverness.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
In some ways, Thank You for Smoking does not bemoan smoking as much as it bemoans people's willingness to be duped by smooth-tongued orators.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
Snarky and enjoyable, but it could have been a ferocious black comedy. No Thank You For Playing It Safe.
Read Full Review >New York Post Kyle Smith
The movie is strangely demure in its attempts to be wild.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Ella Taylor
As sleek, clever and cocky as its anti-heroic protagonist, Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart), a hard-driving lobbyist for the tobacco industry who can turn the most unpromising PR quagmire to his own advantage with a few well-turned lies posing as rational argument.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
Of all the funny things in Thank You for Smoking, and there are many, the most striking is Robert Duvall's absolutely mirthless laugh.
The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
The movie is amusing and clever but only skin deep. It lacks the acidity and rage of a satire such as "Network."
Read Full Review >Variety David Rooney
Playing a Big Tobacco lobbyist, Aaron Eckhart puts his golden news-anchor good looks and smooth conviction to better use than in any pic since his breakthrough film, "In the Company of Men."
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
As the substantially faithful movie version demonstrates, the story of Thank You for Smoking resides in that libertarian netherworld where the far left and the far right march shoulder to shoulder.
Read Full Review >The New Yorker David Denby
Thank You for Smoking is a nifty but slight movie. Some of the writing is obvious, and the dramatic structure is flimsy, if not downright arbitrary. But Eckhart, in a sure-handed performance, holds the picture together.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Simon Houpt
A slick and star-studded comedy trumpeting a glib libertarianism that talks a good game but is as woolly headed as the liberalism fixed in its sights.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
Despite its many strengths, Thank You for Smoking hovers around mediocrity, and its lasting impression is like a puff of smoke that is dissipated by a strong gust of wind.
Read Full Review >Slate David Edelstein
To work onscreen, Thank You for Smoking needed to be fast, scruffy, and offhand. But even the good lines here last a self-congratulatory beat too long. Aaron Eckhart is likable, but he's too hangdog and naturalistic for a part that could have used a brisk young Jack Lemmon type.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Jeremy Mathews
The film isn't as funny as the highly publicized conflict over the sell of its distribution rights might have you believe, but does contain a series of energized and entertaining performances that stop it from being a complete failure.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Michael Atkinson
Instead of hitting the gas and allowing the scenario to rock 'n' roll with g-forces, Reitman keeps his movie small, unvaried, slack, and deliberately and oddly, completely smoke-free.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
As a satire on Tobacco Inc.'s outrageous ability to market carbon monoxide as the elixir of life, this movie should be packing more nicotine.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
The chief problem with Thank You for Smoking, isn't that it's over the top; it's that it fits so neatly UNDER the top.
Read Full Review >Empire Dan Jolin
A laudably amoral and superbly caustic comedy for those who like their satire strong and unfiltered.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
For a film that's ostensibly about modern American society's love affair with addictive behavior – sex, drugs, rock & roll – its bark is much worse than its bite.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.5 (out of 10) based on 82 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Danny V gave it a9:
A very sharp film; very original and keeps you guessing. It was nice to see a movie that didn't feel like yet another remake on a popular theme! Kept us thinking and commenting throughout the film! Highly recommended.
Ryan S. gave it a10:
I love this movie... I have been smoking for a year now and I needed to stop badly... Thanks to this movie I quit completely. This movie is great, funny, and has a very clever plot line. 10 STARS!!!!
M N. gave it a10:
I saw this movie by chance the other night so I hadn't heard anything about it prior. I loved this film, I consider it one of the best comedies I've seen in ages. Brilliant cast and very clever.
[Anonymous] gave it a10:
One of the best scripts this decade--vastly underrated and near-perfect from start to finish.
Matīss I. gave it a10:
Tired of the usual crap. than this movie is perfect for you!
Dan C. gave it a5:
I'm amazed by all the reviews calling this movie funny, witty, and bitingly satirical. It's incredibly bland and obvious throughout, as are its characters. Nothing subversive or original here. Almost no laughs, not many quiet funny moments, and generally boring as heck. This is 1/100 the satire of a real masterpiece like the South Park movie.
Riren gave it a9:
One of the funniest movies in years, Thank You For Smoking makes its points and pricks everyone with them. Almost every role is immaculately casted, especially the leads, with the actors providing the right doses of sympathy, frustration and venom along the offensively hilarious plot. The tobacco industry's lies and doubletalk are only the premise from which larger-than-life characters rise to entertain through surprising exercises in lack of compassion, egomania and the occasional exhibition of real human weakness. Best, Thank You For Smoking doesn't hate anyone involved in its subject matter. Like Kevin Smith's Dogma, it is humanistic enough to entertain, even at the expense of its themes - and this ultimately gregarious notion makes a more profound statement about the treatment of tobacco in modern society than scathing films like Crash do about bigotry.
