*** (out of ****)
Starring Nicolas Cage, Michael Caine, Hope Davis, Gemmenne de la Pena, Gil Bellows, and Nicolas Hoult
Directed by Gore Verbinski & written by Steven Conrad
2005
101 min R
The �art movie for everyone� or �corporate indie� is alive and well. The favored theme is the man past his prime coming to terms with life�s disappointments, usually amidst quirky awkwardness and our uneasy guffaws. Think Alexander Payne�s �About Schmidt� (old man) and �Sideways� (middle-aged man). Or �American Beauty� (middle-aged again) and �Garden State� (disillusioned young man). It would be easy to pick on movies like these (as well as call the critics who commend them something like �faux literati�). But their complete indifference to teenage appeal make them a refreshing genre; characters are allowed to be richer and a lot less commendable.
The disillusioned mid-lifer of �The Weather Man� is a TV weather guy (Nicolas Cage) in Chicago. He wanted his life to be one way, but instead, it�s another in virtually every respect. He�s divorced, he doesn�t understand his kids, and he�s never gotten a good word from his Pulitzer-winning father (Michael Caine). The Weather Man may earn $240,000 a year, but that only emphasizes his sensation of being a meaningless parasite. As Cage�s son gets into trouble, and his chubby daughter is perpetually on the verge of a wardrobe malfunction, and as the ex gets serious with a new man, the Weather Man spirals down and down.
His modus operandi�of claiming with desperate smiles that everything is okay�just won�t cut it. How Cage plays down how passing motorists peg him with fastfood for mis-predicting the weather is priceless. The ex-wife is played by Hope Davis, who with this picture, �About Schmidt,� and �American Splendor� seems to specialize as the woman upon whom men in crisis fixate. She is not the antagonist�the Weather Man is his own worst enemy�but her feminine ability to adapt while he cannot makes her appear in possession of all the cards.
Don�t let the preview fool you: there are parts of �The Weather Man� that threaten to veer into �Taxi Driver� territory. Meteorology�s inability to control or even properly predict the weather is used to represent the individual�s inability to control his destiny�the best he can do is learn to accept what comes his way. The movie is a comedy because it must be a comedy; a drama on this same subject would be depressing to the point of unwatchable.
Director Gore Verbinski�s other films include �The Ring� and �Pirates of the Caribbean.� All three movies include strained relations between parents and lonely children. �National Treasure� shows son Orlando Bloom estranged from his father while �The Ring� is essentially a metaphorical condemnation of Naomi Watts letting television raise her big-eyed boy. Now write an essay about them. Or maybe write an essay about how negatively our culture views TV meteorologists: with this movie and Bill Murray�s �Groundhog Day,� it seems that there�s no job more likely to make you a self-centered schmuck.
Finished Monday, November 14, 2005
Copyright � 2005 Friday & Saturday Night
Back to home.