From the movie’s opening, the pace jumps back and forth between heavy discussions and the sentimental moments of Naylor with his son Joey (Cameron Bright). The 92-minute feature keeps the audience’s attention without clearly dividing the tobacco business from the struggles parents face. In other words, the two aspects of the story being represented are integrated in a manner that makes the audience feel in touch with Naylor’s lifestyle and the inner workings of his mind.

Since his job deals with moral dilemmas and he faces scrutiny from national big names, Naylor is constantly flying around the country as damage control for Big Tobacco. The movie begins with him on the Joan Lunden show accompanied by advocates against smoking, and even a 15-year-old bald cancer survivor talking about cigarette addiction and what it did to him. The main character is immediately in a difficult situation that requires cunning linguistics and keeping his cool. Naylor handles himself well and even convinces the audience that Big Tobacco is launching an anti-teen-smoking campaign.

The major opposition Big Tobacco faces, however, is Senator Ortolan Finistirre (William H. Macy). Finistirre is the senator from Vermont who is trying to make it mandatory for cigarette labels to include a skull and crossbones above the word “POISON.” The film has a lot of fun with this character by playing on stereotypes of people from Vermont. Finistirre has a Vermont-shaped cheese mold in his office, dozens of bottles of real Vermont maple syrup, and he even wears Birkenstock sandals with his dress suit. It is hard to take the senator seriously in his office setting, which really adds to making smoking a laughing matter.

The core of the movie comes from Naylor’s idea to make Hollywood promote cigarettes like they used to do in the good old days. He points out that—before all the health risks were studied—Hollywood actors needed something to do during talking scenes, thus cigarettes were a dominant prop to a lot of classic scenes. In order to continue selling the product, Big Tobacco is advised to sell the sexual appeal of smoking. Naylor enlists the help of superagent Jeff Megall to incorporate character smoking in a movie already in the making. The big plan is to get Brad Pitt and Catherina Zeta Jones to light up after a steamy sex scene in this futuristic space station; cigarettes would be the cool thing to do in the future.

Just when it appears that Naylor is on top of his game and the industry should be booming, he runs into trouble with the seductress reporter Heather Holloway, portrayed by Katie Holmes. She is writing a story on what Naylor’s job really is, and he has different intentions for their meetings. During their intimate encounters, he mistakenly trusts Holloway with privileged information about his bosses, his friends, and his company’s immediate goals. After her story is published, his career and family life take a turn for the worse, and Naylor finds himself in a situation where his ability to spin issues will be his only savior.

Overall, Thank You for Smoking exemplifies the cynical comedy without giving the audience the chance to slow down and realize how bleak the storyline really is. Even the slower father-son moments are riddled with Naylor’s obligations to Big Tobacco as he brings his son on business trips. He is able to bond with his son and teach him lessons about people management while doing his job and doing it well. Anyone who can enjoy twisting serious issues into satire without any regard for political correctness should go see Thank You for Smoking, which opens nationwide this weekend.