Review of The Weather Man (2005) by Jamie T — 18 Nov 2008

I had seen most of The Weather Man before, and I didn't really care all that much for it. In fact, I had already given it a rating here on the Flixter -- a measly two-point-five stars, along with the assertion that the movie was "mediocre". And I hadn't even finished it the first time.

I know why I didn't like it the first time. Our titular weather man Dave Spritz (Cage) is a man who loves soaking in his own particular brand of pessimistic narcissism. He is not a very likeable character. This is perhaps best illustrated in a scene where he has to write down something about his estranged wife that he never told her for a trust exercise: he writes that her "bj's lacked enthusiasm". In addition to Spritz's general unattractiveness, the movie seems to be playing his habit of being pelted with fast-food for laughs, and then there's the whole disturbing thing regarding his daughter being referenced as a portion of the dromedary anatomy.

Upon this re-viewing, though, it became obvious to me that Spritz wasn't supposed to be an inherently likeable character. He's not a "hero" in the sense that many movies' protagonists are -- not a man of unimpeachable morals, not the sort of guy who knows exactly what moves to make at the exact right times.

No, Dave Spritz is much more realistic than that. Sometimes he does things right, but often he fails miserably. And then he does what a lot of us would do after coming to the realization that they have been a let-down to themselves: he takes a selfish pity on himself. His father is diagnosed with lymphoma that will certainly kill him within a few months, and yet Spritz is gloomy at the thought that his father has yet to read his science-fiction manuscript. Not to say that he doesn't care about his father's disease: he is preoccupied with both the need to prove himself to his father before the, ahem, deadline -- and his need to prove to himself that he can make more out of his life than he has so far. In both cases, the focus of his efforts lie squarely on his own shoulders.

So over the course of the film, Dave tries to forge a relationship with his father and with his children and tries to save his relationship with the woman he used to love. Whether he accomplishes that is a matter of opinion, because this film doesn't end with a big, smiling reunion with everybody the main character has ever known. No, the relationships are painted with shades of gray. The film is chock full of symbolism (the food, the archery, the ice water, Dave's career, etc.) which could feel like a contrived over-indulgence at first. But a lot of this symbolism isn't readily explicable. And the symbols that feel kind of hokey, like the fast food, are hokey. Because human beings find meaning in the meaningless; we're programmed to find patterns; we look for metaphors. Dave looks for meaning in the fast-food thrown at him, he compares his father to a line in a Bob Seger song, he contemplates the meaning of his job. When you're paid $240,000 to work two hours a day, that leaves you a lot of time to bask in your unearned wealth -- and leads you to the realization that maybe you're not as wealthy as you first thought.

It's true that I am a Nicolas Cage apologist, but he does a great job here as the frustrated, self-obsessed Spritz. Michael Caine, similarly, is wonderful as Spritz's soft-spoken father, unable to be deciphered.

You could say that The Weather Man is depressing, because in a way it is. Nothing works out entirely the way that it was planned, but that's part of the thing with life. Even if you've notched your arrow and aimed toward the bullseye, the wind could still knock your arrow off-target. And who can tell which way the wind will blow?

The movie veers back and forth from startling easy to empathize with and border-line annoying self-awareness. But overall, The Weather Man serves as a great reminder that Nicolas Cage is a whole lot better an actor than disasters like Next and this year's Bangkok Dangerous would lead you to believe.