The moral ambiguities of a smooth-talking, quick-thinking lobbyist for the tobacco industry come under fire while he continues to work for a heartless organization that panics when cigarette sales drop even the slightest percent and cancer patients turn up on TV talk shows. Writer-director Jason Reitman, working from Christopher Buckley's novel, cleverly juggles his film's dark-hued elements with comedy in an inviting package. The filmmaker doesn't attempt to use sneaky reverse psychology on us (thankfully); instead, he boldly displays the smug recklessness of not only the tobacco industry but the squawk-boxes for the alcohol and firearms people as well. We see them for the bloodsuckers they are, bragging about doing their dirty work "for the mortgage"--and Reitman even manages to make them funny. Aaron Eckhart was the perfect casting choice for this "Sultan of Spin"; with his creamy pseudo-charm and unbridled arrogance, Eckhart knows just how to play the devil incarnate and make him both wily and buffoonish. Reitman's style is jaded satire in a glossy format; he wrings big laughs out of the quotable lines of dialogue, though there's no weight behind his verbal (and visual) slings and arrows. The movie's edges are blunted in its quest to be likable--it's a skewering of all the outrageous behavior we see on the news--and nothing here goes beyond the cheeky, sideways-slanted humor which deliberately dominates. **1/2 from ****