Smoke ’em if you got ’em
I never saw the movie that came out, what was it, last year or earlier this year? Either way I didn’t see it despite a number of friends telling me that it was terrific. The friend who loaned me her copy of the book, however, said that the movie disappointed her, having read the book. A movie not living up to the greatness of a book is not a new story, but it’s easy to guess where the corners would be cut in *Thank You For Smoking*.
It’s an engaging read, and funny in a way that never quite gets a laugh, but it’s not Great Literature. Take away Buckley’s cleverness and facility with the English language and I imagine that you don’t have a lot left to make a movie with. An amusing and fascinating concept, and a story to hang comic moments on. Not much else.
One thing Buckley was (thankfully) mostly successful with was avoiding heavy-handedness. This is to his credit, as it’s not an easy job making fun of someone whose job it is to make sure that people keep killing themselves. (See? I wasn’t even trying and that came out ham-fisted.) There were moments when the satire seemed preachy, but they were few and infrequent. How would that translate to Hollywood? Not well at all, I imagine.
In any case, it’s worth reading. Perhaps some day I’ll get around to renting the movie, but I’m not in any hurry.
