THANK YOU FOR SMOKING
CAROLINE: Here we are at the 68th Street Loews cinema. It’s a very nice theater, isn’t it?
RYAN: AMC.
CAROLINE: Oh that’s right, it’s both now.
RYAN: And how!
CAROLINE: Would you concur, it’s a nice theater?
RYAN: It is nice, yes.
CAROLINE: With yummy popcorn, I might add.
RYAN: Yes, yummy popcorn. And whilst purchasing our tickets, right behind us in line was one Keanu McReeves.
CAROLINE: With whom, we then proceeded to watch a trailer featuring himself…it was very meta.
RYAN: Yes, he joined us, he sat a few rows ahead of us in the theater. And we saw a trailer he was in for…
CAROLINE: The new Richard Linklater movie.
RYAN: Which I’m excited to see because of Winona Ryder. Welcome back to the five and dime, WY-nona Ryder.
CAROLINE: And I would like the record to show that not only is Keanu cute, albeit scruffy, but he is also tall! Unlike most Hollywood actors.
RYAN: Yeah! So there you go.
CAROLINE: That pleases me.
RYAN: All right. We just had the pleasure of watching “Thank You for Smoking.”
CAROLINE: Featuring Aaron Eckhart and it’s lovely to see him in a leading man role.
RYAN: Seriously, he’s really good!
CAROLINE: And cute.
RYAN: Very cute. And hot!
CAROLINE: And nice-looking to boot.
RYAN: I think we’d make a cute couple. But really this movie was a star-making vehicle for Katie Holmes.
CAROLINE: I have to say, she was good. She’s annoyed me in previous films but she was cute in this. She has a small part but she was good.
RYAN: Yeah, and I think that’s just about it. If she’d had any more lines or she had any more to do in it, she would have been annoying. I think she’s entered the dangerous realm of celebrity where her pop culture status transcends her acting ability.
CAROLINE: Yes, like Linsday Lohan and Jenny Ani.
RYAN: Yes, and I can’t watch her and experience a suspension of disbelief because I’m just thinking she’s pregnant by Tom Cruise and is it real or not?
CAROLINE: Right, absolutely. But more importantly – this film is funny.
RYAN: The film is very funny, and it’s a black comedy.
CAROLINE: It’s a political satire, if you will.
RYAN: That too.
CAROLINE: It even caused me to snort whilst laughing.
RYAN: You did and I liked that! You kind of woke me up a few times. I was enjoying the film but my sense of humor was called to attention by your snorts.
CAROLINE: Thank you.
RYAN: And here’s the thing – the jokes in this film were funny and pop culturally relevant as well as politically relevant with what’s going on in the tobacco industry. And if one or two of these jokes were sprinkled in a regular film, I would have laughed uproariously at them. But it was like joke after joke after joke in this film, so I kind of became desensitized to it and just watched the film. And enjoyed it – I think it was really smart.
CAROLINE: Yeah, I’m not going to say I adored it and everyone has to see this film but it’s cute and it’s certainly funny.
RYAN: Bill Macy was good.
CAROLINE: Yeah, and I liked Maria Bello even though she didn’t have a big part.
RYAN: I didn’t like her hair so much.
CAROLINE: Yeah, not her best hairdo.
RYAN: And the kid from “Birth” was in it.
CAROLINE: Worst movie in history! But he was fine.
RYAN: It’s a great screenplay, well-directed. And what about scene stealer Rob Lowe!?
CAROLINE: Oh my God, I can’t believe it’s taken us this long to give him a shout out, he was phenomenal.
RYAN: He was like a character from Ally McBeal. He was brilliant in this.
CAROLINE: He’s in it for all of five minutes but every one of his lines is delivered so perfectly. He looks good too. Sometimes I think of him as scary, plastic face but he actually looks good in this.
RYAN: Totally. Final thought?
CAROLINE: Overall, fine. If you miss it, it’s not a tragedy – but it’s cute if you’re in the mood.
RYAN: Exactly. They say a lot of American audiences don’t like black comedies, but if you do, this is a great one. And even if you don’t, it’s an intelligent political commentary film. We’ve seen two in row – “V for Vendetta” and this one. Great cast, great everything. We give it the Ryaline equivalent of a ‘thumbs up.’ We don’t know what that is, of course.
CAROLINE: Yeah, we haven’t determined that yet.
RYAN: But that’s what you get.