With a release date delayed by its studio for several months last year, it’s clear that Paramount executives weren’t really sure about what to make of The Weather Man. The movie’s trailer and ads make it look like an unconventional comedy about a dysfunctional family, when in fact it’s much more of a drama with comedic elements about a man struggling to find his true identity amidst a series of family crises.
Nicolas Cage captures just the right amount of inner turmoil as Dave Spritz, a Chicago weather man, who sees his professional star rise, even as the star in his personal life is sinking rapidly. Dave desperately wants the potential career high of the former (a weatherman job on a New York morning show, hosted by Bryant Gumbel) to turn things around in what’s failing in the latter.
However, what’s failing is something that a new job can do little to fix, what with a failed marriage and two troubled children to contend with. Misery just seems to follow Dave around, and is occasionally hurled at him, as passersby pelt the poor sap with a variety of fast foods — presumably because they’re upset about his forecasts.
Dave’s father Robert (Michael Caine) meets his son right after one such drive-by incident and questions why anyone would want to do this. After all, Dave just tells the weather and doesn’t even have a degree in meteorology, Robert not-so-helpfully points out.
Little character jabs like that from his father are also dealt with on a regular basis from Dave, who desperately wants the admiration and respect from Robert, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author. Caine gives a very good performance by capturing the essence of a disappointed father in just a few scenes. He doesn’t inherently see his son as a failure (although Dave has a way of feeding into that possible perception), just as someone who needs to “knuckle down” to improve his life.
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Article comments
1 - geo
Weathermen get a lot of bad press.
Twister's other charactar (Paxton) had a weatherman complex too.
Hmmm.