The Weather Man

Yet another film in which Nicolas Cage plays a conflicted depressed guy, who does and says all sorts of inappropriate things that appall everyone around him.

David Spritz (Nicolas Cage) feels like his life is a complete failure, despite having a well-paying job as a weatherman in Chicago where he only has to work two hours a day. Even worse than having that occupational nightmare, people are constantly recognizing him on the street and asking him what the weather is going to be like. He responds to these innocent questions by being a huge asshole, whereupon someone inevitably throws some sort of food at him. His life truly sucks. Better days are not on the horizon for David either, as his father, Robert (Michael Cain), is dying from lymphoma, he’s still in love with his ex wife, Noreen (Hope Davis), and his two kids are troubled and unhappy. David’s teenage son, Mike (Nicholas Hoult), has recently gotten out of rehab, and one of his former drug counselors seems to have developed a creepy affection for the teenager. David’s 12 year-old daughter, Shelly (Gemmenne de la Pena), is overweight and referred to as “cameltoe” by her classmates—she assumes it’s because she’s tough. On the off chance that the audience is similarly confused as to cameltoe’s meaning, several shots of it are shown while David explains the phenomena. Meanwhile, he has just received a potential job offer from the national morning show Hello America with Brian Gumble in New York, which is the only bright spot in his ostensibly dismal existence.

David makes various attempts throughout the film to please his kids and his father, as well as win back his ex wife’s affections, but each honest endeavor fails and the situation subsequently worsens. He takes Shelly and his father to New York, where his father can see another specialist, and David can interview with Hello America. He’s optimistic that he’ll get the job and even more hopeful that this potentially successful career move would allow him to fix his personal life as well. He seems to be completely off-base about his relationship with Noreen however, who responds to his suggestion of marital reconciliation with near revulsion. Flashbacks of an argument over tartar sauce during their marriage are shown to help the audience understand what David does not—that Noreen pretty much loathes him. So he becomes more depressed.

Nicolas Cage spends the majority of his starring role gazing forlornly into space, occasionally interrupted from his reverie by food smashing into his face, or his daughter strutting around with a cameltoe problem. The movie is alternately dismal and amusing, but more so the former. The comedy mostly comes from David’s reactions to his many failures as well as his observations on life, which usually end in outbursts of profanity or mild physical violence. The food chucked at David throughout the movie was also quite entertaining, although that might just be due to my sometimes juvenile sense of humor. Regardless, I think the previews for this film were slightly deceptive, as it wasn’t nearly the comedy I expected it to be.

There were many brilliant attempts at humor in the film, but in the end I mostly just felt depressed. I’m not sure where to even start in classifying this movie, but it was a great character study in typical Nicolas Cage style. If you like those kinds of stories, then you’ll absolutely love this one.