Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart) is a lobbyist for the fictional Academy of Tobacco Studies, a stand in for the recently defunct Tobacco Institute that bit the dust in 1998 as part of a settlement for smoking lawsuits brought by various states. Nick’s young son, Joey, invites him to speak to his class on "what your parents do for a living" day. We know Nick’s a clever sleaze bag when a 9-year-old mentions her mother says that smoking is harmful and he asks if her mother is a doctor. "No," answers the girl, and Nick’s response is "then she’s hardly an expert."

Nick figures that the way to increase cigarette sales is to make it cool once again. So his handler BR (J.K. Simmons) gets him connected to hot shot Hollywood agent Jeff Megall (Robert Lowe). The plan is to have some name stars to smoke in their movies, to get the message across. As BR says, since the product is addictive, half the work is done for us!

The satire here is as subtle as the smoke filled room where Nick meets the Captain (Robert Duvall), a tobacco titan who is the ultimate member of the old boys’ club. Nick is on the fast track, the rails greased by his smooth talk. On the Joan Lunden show he even manages to put a positive spin on a boy dying of cancer from second hand smoke. If there was any doubt of his ability to sell ice to Eskimos, that is resolved when he slam dunks Senator Finistirre by making the cholesterol in cheese (a big product in Finistirre’s home state) seem as bad as the harmful effects of smoking.

The comeuppance for Nick comes from his relationship with Heather Holloway (Katie Holmes), a reporter with morals on par with his own. She elevates talking out of school to such a level that it may say more about the state of investigative journalism than about lobbyists. The sexual chemistry between Eckhart and Holmes is uncomfortably realistic, enough to make you squirm as you ask, "why are they doing this?"

If you don’t think that what the film espouses is true satire, consider the following in the March 20^th issue of Business Week: "…lobbyists are relentlessly opportunistic. During the 2004 Presidential campaign, Senator John Kerry’s handlers may have thought putting their candidate on TV with a shotgun and hunting gear would show voters that the candidate was a red-blooded American. The National Rifle Association (NRA) immediately smelled blood—and a way to push its agenda and favored candidate, President George W. Bush. Within 30 minutes of Kerry’s foray into a goose pit in Ohio, Chris W. Cox, NRAs chief lobbyist, was on a plane to the state, where he held a press conference, blasting the senator for posing with a shotgun that would have been banned by legislation the lawmaker had supported in Congress." We will resist comment on Kerry and the Democratic Party.

This hilariously funny mockumentary about the industry (and often the folly) of the business of lobbying, uses tobacco as the whipping boy to great effect. The Sin Industries of alcohol, tobacco and firearms have as their cardinal rule, "Never blurt out the truth. Stick to the script." When you are trying to put the best face on an industry that kills the equivalent of two jumbo jets of people each day, you’ve got to be good. These men and women are so good, that they make Karl Rove look like an amateur when it comes to spin. Some of our politicians and corporate leaders are indeed scary in how they can skew capitalism and turn so many positive things upside down.