The Weather Man

This little seen, little known gem showed up on a list of such movies that I stumbled upon, and I figured I should give it a whirl as it would be a refreshing change to see Nicolas Cage in something good.

And I don't know if I would call Weather Man good per say. It's more of an interesting character study than anything.

Nick Cage plays David Spritz, a local weather man who makes a decent living doing very little. Despite his good work status, he has trouble relating to his two children and ex-wife, who is seeing another man. David struggles against the want to have his family together again and his overwhleming depression and anger over his situation. His daughter has taken up smoking and is bullied over her weight, while his son is clueless to the very obvious advances of his pedophile counselor. Add to that that his father, played by poor Michael Caine who is very obviously struggling with an American accent, is a prize winning author who is very straightforward about his dislike of how David handles his children's issues. David is also assaulted quite regularly by people driving by in cars and throwing fast food at him. To deal with his problems he takes up archery, which becomes his only escape from reality.

And that's pretty much the movie. His dad is diagnosed with lymphoma and given little time to live, and he struggles with the decision to move to New York and take a job with a profile morning show with a very high pay raise or to try and stay with his kids and mend things. Most of the rest of the movie is philosophical pondering through voice over narration by Cage, and some awkward situations where he can't keep his anger in check.

That's why I can't really say it was good, because while there's a lot he struggles with, there's actually very little that happens in terms of plot/story development. Yet it wasn't bad either, as the situations he found himself in were quite funny and/or dramatic. It was just...blase, like the main character. It plodded along, not really sure of where it was going except that the final destination wasn't going to be happy, but along the way there were some potent moments.

So being better than bad but worse than great...

The Weather Man gets a 7/10.