After seeing Thank You for Smoking, I unhesitatingly recommended to my friends. It is an intelligent satire and a highly entertaining movie that avoids the too-easy tricks of vulgarity and shock. (Though there are a couple sexual encounters in the film, they are actually relevant to the plot.)
So after such praise, why did I title this post as I did? Because as good as it is, the film holds its punches. The satire works because Nick Naylor and Heather Hathoway are deliciously unscrupulous. They are the kind of characters we love to hate. In a satire like this, their moral poverty is precisely their virtue.
But the film tried to have it both ways: Nick is despicable, but he’s really a good guy at heart. He tries to be a good father. We see a touching montage of Nick taking his son to Los Angeles on a business trip with him. And after his world falls apart, it is his son who inspires him to get back in the game. Their relationship is clearly intended to be authentic and loving, which is exactly what is wrong with the whole thing.
If a satire is to put forth an anti-hero, let it be consistent. The movie is at its best when Nick is at his worst. His sophistical arguments and outlandish accusations delivered with a barely contained smirk are simply delightful. The conversations with the MOD squad are brilliant. As much as in any other context I fully appreciate a complexity and nuance, it is completely out of place here.
Satire works by taking one argument or character trait and personifying it to absurd extremes. Nick and Heather are both downright mercenary in their pursuit of success. Nick will knowingly defend and promote a deadly habit. Heather will prostitute herself to get the scoop. The message of satire resides in the audience’s appreciation of the extremity being presented. The audience is supposed to recognize that such a life is ridiculous and untenable and that real life requires some moderation and balance. Giving Nick’s character a virtuous character trait (which trait is rather inconsistent with the rest of his life) actually weakens the satirical effect by making Nick more sympathetic than he ought to be.
