‘Smoking’ a bold, brilliant satire

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In theaters

THANK YOU FOR SMOKING, written and directed by Jason Reitman, based on the novel by Christopher Buckley, 92 minutes, rated R.

Katie Holmes is having a time of it lately, isn’t she?

Just this week, before giving birth to daughter Suri, it was widely reported that her fiancee, Tom Cruise, planned to eat their baby’s placenta (he later said it was a joke), that the couple planned to have their baby on the moon, and that because they are Scientologists, Katie would offer a silent birth. As in not a peep out of Katie as she pushed.

Now comes “Thank You for Smoking,” which was filmed pre-Tom, and which shows, shall we say, his lack of fatherly influence. Katie is having a grand time of it here – the sort of time that usually ends in a wink and a drink, if you know what I mean.

The film, which writer-director Jason Reitman based on Christopher Buckley’s scathing satire, is one of the best and brightest of the year. It’s smart. It’s well written. It features the sort of edge that pop culture needs right now to make it interesting again. Holmes isn’t the star of the show – that would be Aaron Eckhart, who has in his grasp a movie that will give his career a serious boost – but she does singe the periphery with a convincing performance as a sell-out wannabe that’s crucial to the plot.

This movie about Big Tobacco finds Eckhart’s Nick Taylor standing tall as the group’s charismatic lobbyist. There seems to be nothing Nick can’t argue persuasively, particularly when pitted against Vermont Sen. Ortolan Finistirre (William H. Macy), a flustered fuss determined to print a morbid illustration of a skull and crossbones on every pack of cigarettes.

And yet he’s no match for Nick, who is so skilled at turning the tables on people, he questions at the Congressional hearing about the label whether those selling Vermont cheddar cheese, for instance, should apply the same label to their products. After all, aren’t farmers killing people with their artery-clogging cheddar? Shouldn’t people be better informed about the fat in their cheese? Or maybe consumers should just choose for themselves, which is the core of Nick’s argument, the one intoxicating fact to which he always returns. What is more American than our right to choose?

There’s so much to admire about “Smoking,” you savor it for the rare satire that it is – this is a movie that is as much about lobbyists and tobacco as it is about spin, which gets to its timeliness, as Tom and Katie could attest.

Joining the toxic mix are Nick’s friends in the MoD Squad, or the “Merchants of Death,” a group of hard-core lobbyists (Maria Bello, David Koechner) from alcohol and firearms who meet for drinks each week so they can share their war stories. Robert Duvall is perfectly cast as The Captain, the slippery, yellowing kingpin of Big Tobacco who sees in Nick an impressive future. Cameron Bright is Nick’s son, Joey, who learns plenty from his father about the powers of persuasion.

But not deceit. In the end, what “Smoking” gets exactly right is that it doesn’t vilify Nick, which would have been too easy, too predictable, yet which is what a weaker, politically correct film would have done. Indeed, in spite of his job, it’s tough to dislike Nick. Here is a man who has his convictions, who is direct and honest, who is good at what he does, and who enjoys his job.

He freely admits to his son that he’s doing it all “for the mortgage,” which doesn’t let him off the hook, but which does add layers to this fresh, very funny movie that resonate.

Grade: A-

On video and DVD

MATCH POINT, written and directed by Woody Allen, 124 minutes, rated R.

“Match Point,” the terrific film in which Woody Allen becomes an expatriate, is set in Great Britain, where Allen’s focus isn’t on New York or on his characters’ neuroses, but on romantic obsession and class differences, the struggle for a better life within a closed society, with crimes and misdemeanors laced throughout the show.

As written by Allen, the movie crafts a complex web of deceit when former tennis pro Chris Wilton (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is hired by an exclusive country club to teach tennis to the wealthy English clients whose lives he quietly covets.

In short order, he meets the good-natured Tom Hewett (Matthew Goode), who takes such a liking to him, he introduces him to his family – wealthy father Alec (Brian Cox), boozy mother Eleanor (Penelope Wilton), and shy, bright sister Chloe (Emily Mortimer), who is so taken by the absurdly good-looking Chris, she immediately sets her sights on him.

For Chris, who came from nothing, everything suddenly seems golden, particularly given Chloe’s attraction to him – it’s his ticket to a better life.

But when he is invited to the Hewetts’ country house for a weekend of shooting, he meets Tom’s absurdly sexy fiance, Nola (Scarlett Johansson), a failed American actress, and all bets are off as they fall into a dangerous affair.

If it weren’t for a few telltale motifs Allen chances throughout – the opening credits, for instance, which are indelibly his – one would be hard pressed to know that this was Allen at all. But this is indeed Allen and what it finds is what he revealed in his youth – a filmmaker willing to take risks, only in this case without the anarchy of those earlier films, and with a sharper focus. “Match Point” is a smashing film, one of last year’s best, with broad echoes of Fitzgerald’s “Gatsby.”

Grade: A

Visit www.weekinrewind.com, the archive of Bangor Daily News film critic Christopher Smith’s reviews, which appear Mondays in Discovering, Fridays in Happening, and Weekends in Television. He may be reached at Christopher@weekinrewind.com.

THE VIDEO-DVD CORNER

Renting a video or a DVD? NEWS film critic Christopher Smith can help. Below are his grades of recent releases in video stores. Those in bold print are new to video stores this week.

Aeon Flux – C-

Bambi II – B+

Batman Begins – A

The Bob Newhart Show: Complete Third Season – A

Breakfast on Pluto – B

Brokeback Mountain – A-

Broken Flowers – A-

The Brothers Grimm – D-

Capote – A

Casanova – C-

Chicken Little – C-

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – A

The Constant Gardener – A-

Derailed – C+

Doom – C+

Flightplan – B-

The Fog (2005) – D

The 40-Year-Old Virgin – A

Fun with Dick and Jane – C

Good Night, and Good Luck – A-

Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire – B-

A History of Violence – A

Howl’s Moving Castle – A-

The Ice Harvest – B-

In Her Shoes – A-

Into the Blue – C-

The Island – C+

Jarhead – B

Junebug – A

King Kong – C

The Legend of Zorro – C+

Lord of War – C

Match Point – A

Memoirs of a Geisha – C+

North Country – C

Oliver Twist – B+

Paradise Now – A-

Pride & Prejudice – A

Prime – B-

Red Eye – B+

Serenity – A-

Shopgirl – B+