Smoke gets in his lies

The 28-year-old director of Thank You for Smoking, Jason Reitman, wants to make films that inspire people to think for themselves, rather than preach to them.

Director Jason Reitman can hear himself saying many of the lines smoking lobbyist Nick Naylor spins in Thank You For Smoking.

In Reitman's movie, Naylor is the tobacco industry's eloquent spokesperson. He promotes cigarettes when the health hazards and death toll can't be ignored. But he is good. Very good.

"My politics and Nick's politics are very similar," says Reitman. "When he says, 'If you argue correctly you're never wrong,' I tend to agree with him.

"But the important thing about that line is that there are always people who are going to be trying to convince you of things. If they argue correctly, it'll be perceived as right; if they argue incorrectly, it'll be perceived as wrong. What's most important is that you think for yourself."

The movie follows Naylor (played by Aaron Eckhart) as he battles everyone from the original Marlboro Man, who's dying of cancer, to the anti-smoking senator from Vermont. It all goes awry when he succumbs to the charms of seductive and ambitious reporter Heather Holloway (Katie Holmes).

"I think there's something whimsical about my films. Something joyful about them," says Reitman. "It doesn't take itself too seriously even when dealing with something like cigarettes."

He's right. Thank You For Smoking is hilarious. You can't help but laugh when Naylor says, "Michael Jordan plays ball. Charles Manson kills people. I talk."

Yet Reitman was conscious of not trivialising the issue considering statistics show cigarettes kill more than half a million people in the United States a year.

"You have to take that somewhat seriously. But you also have to have common sense about it and in the civilised world it would almost be impossible to find someone who doesn't think cigarettes are dangerous. And if you have that knowledge then it's hard to feel sorry for you if you pick up a cigarette and smoke and get sick.

"I feel like I made an independent film that's independently minded and hopefully inspires people to think for themselves."

It took Reitman years to get the movie made. The main obstacle was getting it produced without compromising the story he wanted to tell.

"I had the opportunity to make it with a couple of studios and do it as long as I was willing to write the third act and soften the movie and give it a liberal ending that preached anti-tobacco.

"But I had no interest in making that movie. There's plenty of movies like that - Erin Brockovich, The Insider ... So for many years I thought, 'I've got this great writing sample that will never be made into a movie.' I didn't think Thank You For Smoking would be my first movie, that's for sure."

Instead the story focuses on the relationship between Naylor and his son Joey. Reitman says one of the important events in the 1994 Christopher Buckley novel the film is based on, was Heather Holloway asking Naylor what Joey thought of his father's job. For the first time Naylor was taken aback and it's clear it struck a nerve.

So Reitman focused on Naylor being a good dad while still doing his job.

And, admits Reitman, who is about to become a father himself: "If I was going to talk to my children about [smoking] I would say, 'You have to be an independent thinker. No one should be able to make a decision for you, even if it's about cigarettes'."

The 28-year-old director first read Buckley's book in his late teens. He fell in love with it.

"There were these perfectly articulated characters and I could visualise them completely," he says.

"But beyond that, it had this wonderful libertarian sensibility that I had felt but never been able to put into words, not only about cigarettes, but everything: this idea that people needed to take more responsibility for their actions and that if we understood the dangers of cigarettes it became a very simple issue - if you want to smoke, smoke, if you don't, don't."

The book confirmed his urge to direct, but film-making is in his blood and he grew up on movie sets.

His father Ivan Reitman directed Ghostbusters, Twins, Animal House and Kindergarten Cop. He was 11 days old when he visited the set of Animal House, and at 13 he was a personal assistant on Kindergarten Cop. "Growing up the child of a masterful storyteller definitely had an effect on my ability to direct. I spent my childhood around a lot of funny people, great storytellers ...

"But really, it's just what I'm passionate about."

His next project is called Juno about a pregnant 16-year-old girl and her relationship with the two people who are going to adopt her unborn child.

"It's just one of the best screenplays I've ever read ... and I want to make small movies that never have to apologise for themselves."

* Thank You For Smoking opens at cinemas next Thursday.