THANK YOU FOR SMOKING

Director: Jason Reitman (no major film work, a few low-budget films)
Starring: Aaron Eckhart, Maria Bello, Rob Lowe, Sam Elliott, more

I had very precise and extensive preconceptions of Thank You For Smoking before walking into the theater. Of course everyone has some notion of what they're going to see, and occasionally they have a notion of 'how' they're going to see it. I just *knew* going in that this film would be an obvious and inane satire on the tobacco lobby, a Saturday Night Live skit. I just knew that this film was was going to be a standard around which our current crop of prohibitionists could ralley.

I see these new Carry Nations everywhere anymore. Just like in the temperance movement, they're predominantly woman (but by no means exclusively), and just like before they're SURE. They're absolutely positively, nearly insanely, self-confident that you and I would be better off if they could make our decisions for us. Then it was drinking, now it's smoking. Let it be known that I more or less dislike these types. Let it be known that I was fully prepared to dislike this movie for pandering to their beliefs. Let it also be known that this movie was much smarter than I believed it could be. It greatly surprised me. This movie was not an obvious whitewash of smokers. It was a funny, interesting, and surprisingly subtle dark comedy. Yes, it showed quite convincingly that smoking is bad for you, but (Thank God!) this is not what this film is about. It was about the flaws in the methods and attitudes of those on either side of the smoking divide. Wonderfully, it's also just plain funny and clever and endearing.

The film follows Nick Taylor (Eckhart), the chief lobbyist for big tobacco. He is the face that debates cancer-ridden children on daytime talk shows. He debates tree-hugging Vermont Senators. He convinces Hollywood to put cigarettes back in movies. This man is awful, right? That's certainly what I thought going in - that this man would be a caricature. Someone that the true-believers could direct their anti-smoking venom at. This couldn't be further from the truth. Nick Taylor is an engaging, interesting, more or less good guy dad. There are a million-and-one Nick Taylors filling every sales and marketing position in America. Most aren't as charming, but you get the point.

In the end, Nick decides that he can't work for big tobacco anymore, but most wonderfully in my opinion is the way that happens. It's not some epiphany. "Oh, my god, smoking's horrible. How can I support it?" No, rather it's a balanced, humorous journey that includes anti-smoking terrorists kidnapping him, and government proposals to edit out all images of smoking in past films. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and highly recommend it.

I will make a bet that if you are virulently anti-smoking, that you will not like this film a great deal. You'll sort of like it, but you'll be angry that the film is not angry. I still suggest you see it, however. As for me, I very much enjoyed this film.

Standouts: A *very* strong script and acting for a comedy. Unique style.
Blowouts: It's no masterpiece, just a very good flick.

Grade: A-

HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE (DVD)

Director: Hayao Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, long notable animation career)
Starring: voices of Jean Simmons, Christian Bale, Billy Crystal, Emily Mortimer, Blythe Danner

I don’t know of anyone creating films more imaginative than Miyazaki over the past decade. The wonderlands he evoked in Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away were stunning creative masterpieces in many many ways. I loved quite a lot about those films and easily rank them among the best films of the last decade. Like those successes Howl’s Moving Castle is again possessed of great imagination and beauty and an intriguing story. There is much to recommend. I don't feel it's quite at the level of those two past films, but it's certainly a wonderfully unique work in its own right.

The movie is set in a Victorian fairlyland of half-timbered cities and steaming locomotives, but also in nightmarish magical battlefields. Wizards and witches are called to war or are forced to hide in the “wastelands", which are rather more like perfect mountain meadows than any waste. In a simple shop Sophie, a plain, but sweet young girl (voiced by Mortimer in the American version) makes hats with her family, until she runs afoul of a the Witch of the Wastes who curses her with old age.

Now an old woman Sophie finds her way to the fantastical moving castle of the wizard Howl. A “castle” it’s not. Rather it’s a moving mountain of mis-matched rooms and machinery infused with the power of a fire spirit (Billy Crystal in a wonderful role). Sophie deals with her curse with pinache and steadfast positive thinking. She is not depressed by her situation. She makes the best of it. Soon she becomes the caretaker of Howl and his moving castle.

Howl has much to learn from this woman. He is despondant and childish and overwhelmed by the smallest crises. He's also beautiful and powerful and talented, but he's used his talents to create this moving castle so that he can run away from the challenges in life. There are magical doors in the castle that open to many places, including cities on both sides of the wicked war that is raging, allowing him to make quick escapes as the situation demands. After much adventure, Sophie cleans him up and props him up and teaches him to stand on his own until he eventually confronts the challenges facing him. Of course they also fall in love and Sophie regains her youth.

There are many magical moments in this film - perhaps too many to count. On the downside, the plot tended to drag on and felt like it was simply petering-out in the end, a concern I also had with Spirited Away. Nonetheless, there is enough that is unique and delightful and magical in this film that it should be seen. One scene of a film this creative is worth a hundred Jim Carrey comedies.

Standouts: The wonderous imagination that fills every frame of this picture.
Blowouts: The plot tends to falter now and again, and even at the big finish.

Grade: A-

FUN WITH DICK AND JANE (DVD)

Director: Dean Parisot (Galaxy Quest, Home Fries, TV work)
Starring: Jim Carrey, Tea Leoni, Alec Baldwin, Richard Jenkins

No one will ever mistake me as Jim Carrey’s biggest fan. I’ve enjoyed some of his films where he edges more into the dramatic realm - films like The Truman Show or Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I’m convinced that I liked those films due to the skilled filmakers rather than due to Mr. Carrey, however. I can say that none of his silly comedies really hit me. I’ve always lumped him and Adam Sandler in the same pile. I’m perfectly fine with watching Ace Ventura or The Waterboy while folding laundry, but only if there isn’t anything else on. Perhaps to better frame this, I feel the same way about films like Necessary Roughness, the original Longest Yard, Stroker Ace or The Secret of my Success. No that’s not true, I like the Michael J Fox movie a lot better actually.

Regardless, back to the film at hand. Fun with Dick and Jane is a moderately enjoyable flick that has some noble goals for a wacky comedy. Jim Carrey plays an up-and-coming VP of an Enron-esque major corporation that is soon monetarily ransacked by it’s nefarious CEO (Alec Baldwin). Carrey loses his job like the thousands of other staff, and soon enough finds himself desperate enough to see what a life of crime might have to offer. He and his wife (Tea Leoni) rob some Starbucks (I can get behind that) and a hippy (Boo!) and eventually come up with an ingenious scheme to get back the millions Baldwin stole from the company’s pensions.

The “ingenious” scheme? It involves them forging Baldwin’s signature. God that’s awful.

Oh well. Anyway, they get the money back for the employees and all is happy in corporate America. So, like I said, there are noble goals here. They lightly lambast corporate greed, which really amounts to individuals’ greed, and try to have some fun in the process. The unfortunate bit here is that the movie just isn’t very fun or funny. Most of the jokes simply fell flat. It’s a nice enough idea to watch some VP’s attempting a life of crime, but the only time I laughed out loud during this film was a sarcastic snicker after a particularly lame joke.

Standouts: There are none. It’s fairly average in most ways, except when it’s slightly below average.
Blowouts: Not too much was entirely awful either, but most of the humor didn’t hit me at all.

Grade: C-