"I do it for the mortgage!"
A black comedy (2005) about big tobacco and its darling-boy lobbyist who can spin a brick and turn the opposition into fumbling baboons!
A great cast of characters ... Aaron Eckhart plays the spin-doctor, a smarmy, cheerful, piece of crap who lost his moral bearings a long time ago and finds comfort in two companions, lobbyists respectively for alcohol and firearms. They refer to their weekly gatherings as the MOD Squad - Merchants of Death who pride themselves on the death-rate associated with their product - and tobacco leads the charge.
Robert Duvall is "the Captain" - the man in Winston-Salem who heads the industry - a ruthless southern gentleman. William H. Macy, a pompous senator; Katie Holmes, a "sell-her-body" reporter, and J.K Simmons as Nick Naylor's boss - a no-nonsense, back-stabbing, go-get-'em jerk who'd sell his grandmother for a buck.
Nick's son, Maria Bello, is all ears and eyes, watching his father flim-flam his way through life. Though living with his mother, he often travels with his father, learning how to spin his way to success, a protege learning how to talk!
In the end, crap floats. After losing his job, because he divulged trade secrets to the reporter, he manages a new spin, appears before congress, demolishes the opposition, seemingly has a moment of moral recall, regains his job, quits his job, and goes to work for other "down and out," misunderstood, industries - such as "loggers, sweatshop foremen, oil drillers, landmine developers and baby seal poachers."
As Naylor puts it: "Michael Jordan plays ball, Charles Manson kills people, I talk. Everyone has a talent."
