The Weather Man

Plot synopsis:
A successful weatherman at a Chicago news program, David Spritz (Nicolas Cage) is well paid but garners little respect from people in the area who throw fast food at him, David suspects, because they're resentful of how easy his high-paying job is. Dave also feels overshadowed by his father, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert Spritzel (Michael Caine), who is disappointed in Dave's apparent inability to grow up and deal with his two children. The situation worsens when Robert is diagnosed with lymphoma and given only a few months to live. As he becomes more and more depressed, Dave takes up archery, finding the activity a way to build his focus and calm his nerves.
To prove himself to his father and possibly reconcile with Noreen (Hope Davis), his estranged wife, Dave pursues a weatherman position with a national talk show called Hello America. The job would nearly quadruple his salary, but means relocating to New York City. When Hello America invites him to New York, he takes his daughter, Shelly (Gemmenne de la Peña), with him and bonds with her by helping her shop for a more suitable wardrobe. While away, Dave learns that his son Mike (Nicholas Hoult) attacked his counselor, Don Bowden (Gil Bellows), claiming that the man wanted to perform oral sex on him. Despite this stress and an all-night drinking binge, Dave impresses the Hello America interviewers and is eventually offered the job.
When he returns, Dave slaps Russ (Michael Rispoli), Noreen's boyfriend, when he finds him dealing with his son's predicament. Dave later confronts the counselor at his home, beating him up and warning him that he is in store for worse.
The family holds a living funeral for Robert (organised by Dave's mother, Lauren, played by Judith McConnell), in which Dave asks Noreen to reconcile and move to New York, but she has decided to marry Russ. Dave and Robert have one final talk, in which Dave breaks down in tears, unsure of his life's choices. Robert consoles him, telling him that he has time to "chuck" the garbage of his life. Robert dies soon after.
The film ends several months later, after Dave has accepted the job and moved to New York. People have ceased throwing things at him though, he muses, this may be a pleasant side-effect of his archery hobby, for which he carries a bow.

Tags: comedy, depressing, bleak, feel-good, humor, romantic

Review:
When I first saw the advertisements for "The Weather Man", it seemed like the movie was going to be another formulaic, feel good Hollywood redemption tale.
The comedy is quite raunchy, the tone is bleak, and the story is anything but formulaic, throwing industry conventions right out the window, which leads to a film that's more believable than most.David Spritz is a man whose life has become the ultimate exercise in futility.
But in creating one of bleakest portraits of contemporary American life you will ever see, Gore Verbinski also creates a film that is shockingly humane, funny, and beautiful.Nicolas Cage, who I don't always like, gives a fantastic performance as David Spritz, a Chicago TV weather man with no degree in meteorology.
Rather than playing it like it's funny, which it is, Cage seems like he's making a sincere attempt to connect with his former wife in any way he can.I wish with great passion that this film was truly great, but unfortunately it's just inches short.
On the whole this actually works much better than it should, but I can't help but feel that there's a note missing.The aforementioned issues aside, The Weather Man is a rare achievement and one of my favorite films of the year.
THE WEATHER MAN was so poorly promoted when it hit the theaters that it seemed like it was going to be one of those asinine food throwing slapstick comedies instead of the very serious examination of contemporary life in the big cities, or even more about the struggle of a disillusioned man who cannot find a balance between business success and family/marital failure, it is.
His personal life is a mess, separated from a disconsolate wife Noreen (Hope Davis), distanced from his successful writer father Robert (Michael Caine) and on shaky territory with his two children - fat and sad Sully (Gemmenne de la Peña) and sweet but troubled pothead Mike (Nicholas Hoult).
The subject of the film is tough and the excessive use of potty mouth language is overbearing and at times one wishes Verbinski would have edited some of the gross food slinging scenes.But as an overall message movie there is much here to admire.
While at the point where you still believe in happy endings and hold on to the possibility that if one good thing happens everything else will fall into place.So the story begins...Dave Spritz is a Chicago weatherman.
It was a real life character study and of course Nicholas Cage and Michael Caine were absolutely superb.What makes the movie so wonderful is that it is based on premises we all know but often forget.
David Spritz is a sad, lonely man who's trying to reconcile with this ex-wife and get his family back together, but despite his best intentions, things just never work out the way he wants.
Michael Cain plays a good counter point, and makes Cage's character more bearable.The piece is funny, in a chuckle kind of way, with lots of sad undertone.
Summary: A middle aged weather man with a failing family life, sick parent and dull job copes with his life and aspires to move to a national TV show.A great movie about the modern dilemma.
They tell us this happens, but it needed to be presented much clearer.Playing Cage's father, Michael Caine is a pretty intimidating figure as he is confused about his son's direction in life while at the same time facing a very dark future of his own.
Spiralling downwards, his life is approaching collapse; and he must choose between his family and a big salary in New York.Nicolas Cage takes the lead role, and while he's never really stretched; he manages to give a fine performance throughout the film.
Verbinski's film states that, like the weather, life cannot be predicted - and no matter what hopes and dreams you have, they're likely to be smashed by the time it comes to realising them.
I really have to laugh and get a little peeved when I see many people get suckered in and write "good" and "Great!" for their review here on IMDb. In the end this movie's attempt at self-centered humor flops unlike Sideways which was overrated yet still far better than The Weather Man. Forecast: Stay away from this dust-bowl of stink..
I didn't think so.I like Nicolas Cage just as much as the average guy and I know this movie is not his usual type of role.
But still, the movie is dark, shows problems at home, at work and with the family - all real life situations, with real life out-load thinking..This movie does nothing but explain that life isn't easy and things don't always come out the way you thought they would be.
If you in the mood for light hearted fare, you would not have been pleased at this film.I didn't have a TV when The Weather Man came out, and I hadn't seen the trailers, so I went in with no preconceived notions at all, What I came away with was the feeling that I had watched the best movie of the year.This is not a humorous movie in the least.
We grow up.The only movie I've seen that compares to this film is Mickey Rourke's "The Wrestler", and I think "The Weather Man" is the better of the two.
The acting performances isn't at his worst.Nicolas cage is far from being a great actor, I must say in this film the performance isn't that bad.But among all thing's, this movie lakes in thought.
I would never, ever think of speaking the language that these kids used so easily in this film.I rarely regret going to see a movie and then wished I had the nerve to get my money back but Weather Man is one of those films..
David Spritz is a Chicago weatherman who is highly successful with his job but outside of his professional life he is a wreck, with his father that is diagnosed with cancer, his wife on the verge of being engaged with another man, and his kids growing up without him.
The film has very good acting performances ranging from Nicholas Cage in the lead to Michael Cain supporting, as well Hope Davis (Spritz' ex-wife, Noreen).
This was a complete LOAD OF CRAP...I'm sorry, that's too critical...if you want to hear a lot of people use the f word and treat each other like garbage...this is your movie.From the beginning until the end there were NO likable characters.Nick Cage - waste of space clownDaughter - overweight smoking 12 year old Mother - contentious hagFather - he seemed like the most likable character until he had to describe what camel toe was...COME ON MICHAEL - you are better than that!!!It's like a dumbed-down old people version of Punch Drunk Love...only more pointless..
Let's just say that they couldn't turn down the millions of dollars the were offered, much as Cages character couldn't turn down the money he was offered which further divorced him from his children and completed this portrait of a looser.How many ways are there to dislike this waste of film and time?
This weather man from TV (Cage) makes good money, but his ex-wife hates him, his son has a drug problem and his daughter seems lost.
But, I really liked the film because it is different than most films released today.This is about one Chicago weatherman who is basically having a mid-life crisis dealing with a separation from his wife and children, the disappointment of his terminally-ill father, and fast food getting thrown at him almost daily.Nicolas Cage and Michael Caine put up strong performances in this movie.
By the end of the story, he may still not totally know, but he's trying, and that's perhaps what counts.The film isn't quite as deep as it thinks, since its makers are still somewhat aiming at a mainstream audience, looking for the human angle while making things light-dark with its star Nicolas Cage, back again in (quasi) oddball mode.
It was a good and wise choice to have Dave's kids not look like right out of a sitcom: his daughter looks like an average kid, one who gets picked on in just the spot-on comment and tone of the 12 year old world ("Camel-toe", funny but alarming goof), and the way she talks and reacts to her father make up for some of the best scenes in the movie.
We don't understand why the son is in rehab to start with, just this bizarre bonding that gives the film an added sense of real dread - more for Dave than anybody.The Weather Man is grim and darkly amusing, mostly in its narration from Cage (not his best nor his worst exactly, paling compared to Bringing Out the Dead and Lord of War), either his observations on being a weather man subjected to people asking him about the weekly Spritz report on which say is coldest, or a particularly funny scene where he walks away from beating up someone and wonders if Harriet Tubman got things thrown at her.
However, his personal life is a complete mess: he is a frustrated writer divorced from his wife Noreen (Hope Davis) but he still likes her and wishes to have her back and their marriage work; his sixteen year-old son Mike (Nicholas Hoult) is in rehabilitation for using pot; his clumsy and fat daughter Shelly (Gemmenne de la Peña) is constantly humiliated at school by her mates and pejoratively called "camel-toe"; his father Robert Spritzel (Michael Caine) is a distant perfectionist writer and Dave tries to prove his own value to him.
In one of the most irritating recent movies I have seen, Nicolas Cage plays Dave Spritz, a selfish, clueless Chicago TV weatherman who is not happy with his personal life.
It revolves around a mid-town TV weatherman who made some mistakes in his personal life that led him to lose control of his life.Its tone is far from uplifting and the funny moments are dark somehow.Cage gives a good performance but his character isn't that likable and at some point his presence looks one-dimensional and might bore you when you realize that, through-out the movie, he hasn't evolved.Anyway.
There is no other working actor out there who would better convince you that a guy with a lucrative job that only takes him 2hours a day, pays 240K a year , makes him some sort of local celebrity (which is quite big considering that locale is Chicago, IL) and gives him the prospect of even more spectacular job for the morning show "Hello America" in NYC, may be as depressed, self-loathing, and confused as Nicolas Cage in the role of David Spritz, the TV Weather Man, and the main character of Gore Verbinsky's 2005 often sad and dark but frank, insightful, and ultimately funny comedy.I believe that the movie was grossly mis-advertised and its trailer pulled the clips out of the content to give a potential viewer the idea of the slapstick comedy with many laughs that come from Cage been thrown at all kinds of fast food by his anti-fans.
The film explores aging, loneliness, longing, emotional crises, and self doubt and more than once brings to mind John Cheever's observation: "The main emotion of the adult American who has had all the advantages of wealth, education, and culture is disappointment." There are a lot of disappointments, regrets and unhappiness in the characters of "The Weather Man", especially its main character, David Spritz but the film is not depressing or hopeless thanks to the finesse and artistry of Cage's performance and to his very unique low key dry humor with which he provides the insights in his character's inner world.
"The Weather Man" is one of the movies that use voice-over effectively and along with Cage, the writer Steve Conrad should be credited for providing the hilarious stream of thought.
It has the kind of story line that you don't usually see in popular film, and people expecting something more a long the lines of Cage's usual roles will be very disappointed.The only part of this movie that would keep me from suggesting it to others is the overuse of foul language.
Cage is just a man complaining about life while trying to find exactly what his life should be about.Trust me when I say that if you usually find yourself agreeing with my movie tastes then The Weather Man is not one you will want to give either your time or money.
It tells the story of someone whose life didn't go as he planned, and it tells it well.People have and will complain that The Weather Man is a depressing movie.
I enjoyed this, it was pretty funny and although I've seen Nicholas Cage play the role of gloomy man re-examining and trying to stop his personal life from spinning out of control many times before I enjoy him as this character.
The movie is well written and while classified a comedy I would more call it a dramedy as its pretty dark with a dry sense of humour throughout.Cage plays Dave Spritz, a frustrated TV weatherman in Chicago, where he makes good money for a job that demands little effort.
Throughout Dave is also trying to land a dream job at the network in New York, which the highs and (mostly) lows of his stormy personal life may impact his chances of getting.I found some aspects of this story very unique, enjoyed the scenes with Dave and his daughter, the bow lessons, dress shopping and Michael Caine was a treat as Cage's disapproving, perfectionist father.
The story sees David attempt to resurrect his family life and secure a happy ending before his father dies."The Weather Man" could be described as an inner-city "American Beauty".
Or maybe it's just because it's natural to feel sorry for one as hopelessly pathetic as Cage appears to be in this film; either way it is a remarkable acting accomplishment from an increasingly remarkable actor.It's not hard to see why audiences were stupendously under whelmed with "The Weather Man"; it's a film about a miserable man with a depressing life for whom almost everything goes wrong and it set in Chicago during winter.
Centering on the lead character's relationship with his father and his own trials and tribulations with his own kids this is a movie that tries a little too hard to be quirky and off-beat.Don't get me wrong, there are some great moments, a few laughs and a little pathos but what surprised me most was seeing Nicholas Hoult as Nic Cage's son.
I have a bit more upbeat look on life.I'm actually a fan of Nicholas Cage (loved him in LEAVING LAS VEGAS and LORD OF WAR), but in this film Cage and director Gore Verbinski go over the edge and over the top.Nick Cage plays David Spritz, a weather man for a local Chicago TV station.
The Weather Man. Nicholas Cage gives a mediocre performance as a Chicago weatherman struggling to make sense of life--his almost non-existent relationship with his father, his strained relationship with his ex-wife and his awkward relationship with his children.
David Spritz(Nicolass Cage,shifting from clean-cut and bright to dark and sallow with ease in the SAME MOVIE!)is a successful Chicago weatherman whose charm and presence at his job has allowed him professionally coast,but whose alternate lack of ease with domestic life or his low self-esteem vis-a-vis his accomplished author father(Michael Caine,a quiet,knowing presence in a film that seems to be the exact opposite of him)has had him inside of his own mental and psychological shell for too long.
Caine,Hope Davis(as Cage's ex,a confused and humorless buzz-kill)are par for the course;Cage's character's kids(Gemmenne de la Pena and Nicholas Hoult)seem real enough,albeit not particularly engaging,same for Michael Rispoli as Davis' new hubby;and Gil Bellows is disturbingly effective as the predator who's eying Cage's son.Director Gore Verbinsky would not have been my first choice to direct this,but he seems to be able to free himself from the usual strum-and-drang style of film-making that he's made his fortune to make this much more still-life,more nuanced,dark film that has comic undertones(which the producers of this film seemed to think they had to underscore,which might explain the show's lack of either commercial or critical reception).Writer Steven Cross made an interesting--although sometimes tough to make heads or tails of--screenplay.While I cannot truly say I loved this film(heck,there were parts that were tough just to like!),I thought this was an overall solid effort.
This film will crystallize the stresses of modern life for many of its viewers.Nicholas Cage plays Dave Spritz, a local TV weather man, whose life is almost dysfunctional on every level.
This film is about how unfortunate the life of Nicolas Cage's character is.
Chicago weather man David Spritz (Nicolas Cage) is in the middle of a mid-life crisis.
Maybe they don't read the weather for a living but many people can relate to the characters on screen because the situations are so realistic and are situations that either yourself or someone you known at one point in time have gone through.Nicolas Cage has been doing some of the best work of his career over the past few years with movies like "Adaptation", "Matchstick Men", "Lord of War", and now "Weather Man" I can safely say he is one actor who I will now run out on opening day to see his next film as long as he keeps making these good films.
Many elements of the weather man's life are relatable to a large audience, but director Gore Verbinski and writer Steve Conrad seal this world off, to such a degree that even a big network job Cage is hoping for doesn't seem likely or exciting (I was thinking the network would be better off choosing somebody else).
I expected something more from a movie starring Nicolas Cage (weather man).
As a big fan of both Nick Cage and Michael Caine, I almost feel bad for them after watching this movie.