Thank You For Smoking

I recently read Christopher Buckley's Thank You for Smoking: A Novel and I liked it so much that I ordered the movie version of the book via Netflix. Last night I finally got around to watching the movie and was pleasantly surprised to find that in my opinion the movie was even better than the book (a very rare thing indeed).

The book was an enjoyable quick read with lots of wit and insight into the K Street world of lobbyists. However, the plot twists surrounding Nick Naylor's kidnapping and attempted murder make the book more of a funny fantasy than anything else.

The movie focused more on Nick as a lobbyist and on his relationship with his son who lives with Nick's divorced wife. This shifting of focus makes all the difference in the world and like I said above - as good as the book was - the movie was better.

One interesting note - the book is written by Christopher Buckley who is the son of the famous William F. Buckley while the movie was directed by and the script was written by Jason Reitman who is the son of the famous director / producer Ivan Reitman (Stripes, Animal House, etc.). It just nice to see sons of famous men making marks of their own.