The Weather Man

Recently, I took the time to view The Weather Man, a movie that has looked intriguing to me for quite a while. It’s a pretty large departure from director Gore Verbinskis usual fare but features just the kind of quirky character that Nicolas Cage was born to play; the combination of the two was unusual, to say the least.

Verbinski is best known for his Pirates of the Caribbean movies making this film, full of complex characters, raw emotion and difficult dialogue, something you wouldn’t think suited to his talents.

In the film Cage play David Spritz, a local TV weather man with a ruined marriage, a strained relationship with his children, a father in whose shadow it’s impossible to thrive and, in general, very bad luck.

Spritz bumbles his way through life, convinced his father can’t possible respect or be proud of him and not ever very sure if life has conspired against him or if he’s just a big screw up making his own troubles. Cage has mastered the art of staring thoughtfully into space, giving us the sympathetic and introspective character that doesn’t ever bore us or make us think he should stop whining. It’s a tough piece of acting and Cage is excellent in the film.

When Sptitz finds out that his father is not well, he embarks on a personal quest to make him proud. He figures that with some hard work he can live up to his fathers expectations by repairing his obviously (to everyone but him) irreparable marriage, establishing a closer bond with his children and succeeding at work.

And he needs to do all this while random passersby throw milkshakes and tacos at the weather man, while inexplicable bad luck plagues him and his inner turmoil continues trying to simmer to the surface and break out. It’s a noble undertaking indeed.

His father, Robert Spritzel (Spritz has shortened his last name on the advice of a TV marketing expert) is played by Michael Caine with his usual excellence. Robert is everything his son is not. He is together, well organized, goal oriented, successful, patient and wise.

The most interesting moments in the film come when Spritz tries, in a ham handed way, to emulate the wisdom of his father and struggles to impart some life lessons to his children. The trouble is it’s not a way of life for him, trying to be wise is just a mood, trying to teach his children valuable lessons just a passing fancy undertook for personal redemption.

For example, Spritz tries taking his overweight daughter ice skating and, of course, she falls and hurts her leg. In that moment the intellectually clumsy Spritz decided it’s time to teach the value of never giving up and makes her finish the race. Rather than imparting this lesson in a meaningful way we are dismayed to discover that she has suffered a severe knee injury and his insistence on making her race was more inadvertent cruelty than sage advice.
Spritz’s ex-wife, Noreen, played by Hope Davis, is forever at odds with seeing Cage for the man he so desperately wants to be rather than who he is. You get the sense that she thought she was marrying someone like his father and was rather surprised to find she had gotten a stripped down version.

Some of the shots that Verbinski gives us are inspired. They don’t just tend to supplement the movies mood but go the extra step and create it. It’s the difference between a creative shot of autumn leaves clumsily implying depression and a director, like Verbinski, who can create the sense of being depressed by finding the right elements in any given setting. He’s creative and interesting, often giving us a sense of isolation as it relates to Spritz that is incredibly powerful.

The characters here require thinking, something that modern audiences and critics don’t seem to care for. They don’t just open their mouths and explain themselves. Their real and subtle and you have to figure them out through their actions, both large and small, and in the things the imply. Especially in Spritz’s case as what he doesn’t say is often as important as what he does.

Robert Spritzel knows his son is in pain. He knows that he is a hugely successful writer and his son just doesn’t have it in him. But for all his wisdom we get the sense that he’s at a loss as to how to help. We come to understand that the elder Spritzel has given up any meaningful effort to mold and shape his son and has instead focused his efforts on saving and healing his grandchildren and sons ex-wife.

The film creates a sense of empathy that is so unique in film today that when we see Spritz through his own his eyes it’s truly depressing; we find ourselves not asking What will he do next? but What would I do next?

If had had one minor complaint with the movie it’s that some of the dialogue is pretty unrealistic and contrived. Hope Davis delivers a few lines that just make you want to wince, but she’s game enough that she comes as close to pulling them off as is possible.

As much as I liked Cage in this film the small difference that existed between brilliance and excellence was a tad too much Forest Gump. Any man as introspective and as aware of his own short comings as Sprtiz has enough intellectual activity going on that he isn’t bumbling along. Sure, he lacks focus and discipline, of course he looks to the sky when yet another bit of bad luck is foisted upon him, but he isn’t just meandering around stupidly and stepping in open manholes. Cage gives us sorrow and rage, he gives us some sense of being beaten not by life but by a maddening inability to “buckle down” and follow through. He lets us know how it feels to truly understand what wisdom is but to also understand that he can never attain it.

All in all this is a terrific film that should not be overlooked. It has a terrific cast and a brilliant director, it’s well worth viewing.