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Ignored by the Academy Awards, The Weather Man struck a chord with certain critics and audience members. Pirates Of The Caribbean director Gore Verbinski took the reins of this film which attempts to imitate American Beauty (1999) in its probing dissection of the emptiness of the American pop culture and its emphasis on materialism, fame, and artificially constructed measures of “success”. Writer Steve Conrad creates a world in which the title character lives in utter emotional depression despite having all the outward “success indicators” society craves. Oftentimes funny, The Weather Man is nevertheless a disappointment. The dialogue is often strained, and one leaves with the impression that the film tried too hard to exhibit the symbolism and depth of an American classic. It’s ironic, because the very societal acclaim it seems to condemn leads to its own downfall when the film tries to create memorable one-liners and symbolism that just don’t work…
The Weather Man follows the life of local Chicago weather man Dave Spritz (Nicolas Cage) who lives an ideal life by traditional American standards of success. His salary is in the mid-six figures. He only works two hours a day, and his job requires no thought. He can be right; he can be wrong. It doesn’t really matter. Meanwhile, he’s been short-listed as a prime candidate for the most desirable weather man job in the world, lead weather guy for Hello America, a nationally syndicated mourning show on one of the major networks. By most people’s standard, Dave has it made. But reality is a totally different picture.
In Dave’s world, he’s constantly haunted by his own father’s success and his desire to live up to expectations and gain fatherly approval. Robert Spritzel (Michael Caine) is a celebrated American author who won the Pulitzer Prize at age 33, a man respected by almost everyone in the world. But Dave’s inability to meet his father’s high expectations strains their relationship. In the meantime, Dave and his wife Noreen (Hope Davis) have recently divorced, his daughter Shelly (Gemmenne de la Pena) has taken up smoking and is enduring the pains of teenage adolescence, and his son Michael is the target of a child-molesting counselor. Throw in a bout of a depression due to lack of a substantive life purpose and Dave is really living the American nightmare. But the Hello America job gives Dave a reason for pause as he debates what course his life should take…
Snubbed by critics, I’ll have to agree that The Weather Man is not the film it held the promise of being. It simply tries too hard to provide deep meaning where a little less flair will do the job. The dialogue is a perfect example. It oftentimes seems that the writers were trying to reverse engineer a sort of memorable dialogue situation similar to the famous “quarter-pounder with cheese” exchange from Pulp Fiction. The result is an awkward and tiresome display of such lines as What is that?... It’s a frosty… What’s a frosty? Why would they hit you with a frosty? The audience is left with the feeling that it’s supposed to be captivated by such linguistics, but the result is the exact opposite. Nevertheless, the film is saved by a number of hilarious scenes such as Dave’s pathetic attempt at a spontaneous moment when he pelts his ex-wife with a snowball, the innumerable moments when Dave is bludgeoned with fast food, and one exchange of dialogue which does work when Robert defines the term “camel toe” for his son. Overall, The Weather Man is a decent night’s entertainment, and the film is not completely without value despite its feeble attempt to follow in the footsteps of American Beauty. One just expects more from veteran actors like Cage and Caine…
About the author:
Britt Gillette is author of
The DVD Report
, a blog where you can find more reviews like this one.
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