The Weather Man 2005
When this movie came out I remember thinking that based on the trailers it could be good. But it got pretty poor reviews (a few good ones, but mostly bad) and I never got around to seeing it at the theaters nor did it make its way up my Netflix list very quickly. It was on TV recently, so I watched it. This is just not a good movie. It centers around a Chicago weather man played by Nicolas Cage. He doesn’t deal well with people which makes me wonder how he could possibly be a good weather man, since they’re usually the ones with personality on the newscast. He is a hapless jerk: although most of the time he is intentionally a jerk, he occasionally means well and still comes off as a jerk by accident. His father is played by Michael Caine. The father is maybe a little stern and, as a Pulitzer Prize winner, has big shoes to fill, but otherwise he is a decent guy. The ex wife seems pretty reasonable, so we never have any idea why this guy is such a jerk.
So this is a tale of redemption of this loser jerk, right? Not really. In the end he is only slightly less of a jerk and maybe slightly less pathetic than at the start of the movie. Though the movie has a lot of touches of an indie character study, it lacks the warmth and humanity that those kinds of movies usually have. C-.
Written: 27 Apr 2009