Weather Man

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Before winning a Best-Actor Oscar for "Leaving Las Vegas", Nicolas Cage appeared in quirky, gritty, edgy movies. After he got his Oscar, he appeared in a string of mind-numbing action movies that basically wasted his kooky, unique style. Oh, Cage would appear in a few genuine attempts at "art", but aside from "Face/Off", you get the sense that the actor was simply cashing in on his fame and picking questionable indie projects.

"The Weather Man", directed by Gore Verbinski ("The Ring", "Pirates of the Caribbean"), is a Hollywood major studio´s attempt at character-driven drama. Unfortunately, despite its relatively low reported budget of $22 million, "The Weather Man" feels like most other hollow, artificial Hollywood major studio fare. The cast is populated by people who don´t seem to care about the material (this applies to even Michael Caine, who appears constipated and bored). "Important" ideas are telegraphed early, frequently, and heavy-handedly. Spongebob Squarepants, a cartoon character owned by Nickelodeon, makes a prominent appearance because Nickelodeon and Paramount are sister companies; however, as this movie is rated R, not many children under the age of twelve will ever see it, so this example of product placement is a waste of time.

Nicolas Cage plays Dave Spritz, a TV weather man based in Chicago. Chicagoans pay more attention to weather reports than people in other cities because of the area´s frequent climate shifts. However, since the weather is so unpredictable, Dave is often wrong and often pelted with food by disgruntled viewers. This aggravates his moodiness since he´s divorced from a woman he still loves and since his children are having serious problems with self-esteem.

Aside from Dave´s interior monologues/voiceovers, the dialogue is heavily reliant on curse words. The characters spew profanity as if they don´t know other words in the English language, and listening to Michael Caine listing several rhyming nasty words is not as amusing as it may sound. Adding to the aural unpleasantness is Hans Zimmer´s music score, which is a assemblage of weird percussive sounds that ping pong around the room without really adding to the movie.

It´s very enjoyable watching Nicolas Cage do some real acting outside of stupid action thrillers, and his sad puppy eyes add to the appropriateness of his casting as a down-on-his-luck guy trying to heal his family by getting a million-dollar-job in New York City. The movie´s best sequence involves Dave helping his daughter shop for new clothes in Manhattan. The daughter is teased by other students at school; they call her "camel toe". Obviously, Dave is upset, but a smile creeps onto his face (and the viewer´s) when he realizes that his daughter has turned a negative into a positive.

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