The Weather Man

Grade: B

The Weather Man is a refreshing view from the husband’s perspective of a divorced, dysfunctional family. It’s absolutely wonderful to see a movie of this nature, without Tim Allen in it and no association whatsoever with Disney. It’s no American Beauty, yet it has it’s place somewhere in between.

Nicholas Cage plays the animated, slightly childish and quirky weather man, David Spritz. He is working at a mediocre weather station reporting the weather daily, recently divorced and unaware of how to fix the once seemingly perfect family life he had once known.

The movie is a self-narrative and it wouldn’t have worked any other way. The self-narration by Cage’s character really captivates the audience and helps us to relate to and understand his zany character. His random acts of reaching out to his family and his ex-wife that are consistently failing; it just about makes a person want to reach out and give him a hug. Almost.

As much as a general feeling of pity develops for the character, sometimes a smidgen of reality tugs on one’s sleeve, begging to stop feeling so damn sorry for this guy. Life is hard, deal with it; everyone else in the world has to.

A significant addition to Cage’s role was Michael Caine, playing the caring role model; the ideal father/grandfather role to his son in this time of need. We’ve seen Caine play the fatherly role in Austin Powers, but this was a whole other genre. He rose to the occasion, showing off the skill that has won him many awards and various key roles. The relationship and chemistry were there, yet a little something was missing again when circumstance arose and the reactions weren’t quite as realistic as the rest of the movie is.

The movie was thought provoking, well-written and had some good acting. The lead wasn’t quite what you’d expected from Cage, but Caine went beyond expectation. One more than made up for the other, yet one couldn’t have done their job without the other. Previews are deceiving in this particular case. It is still a worthwhile flick, just not worthwhile in the places or ways it was perhaps thought or made to be. Don’t go expecting a heartfelt Disney pic of the week; go for a honest sobering dose of reality and insight.