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Film review

Take a shower after this one

The Weather Man, billed as a comedy, is anything but. And disturbing undertones involving minors should have been forecast.

By STEVE PERSALL
Published October 27, 2005

	[Photo: Paramount Pictures]
	Nicolas Cage plays a TV weatherman whose personal life is a mess in The Weather Man.

The Weather Man could be the first movie sued for false advertising. Preview trailers promoting this as a comedy - bouncy music, carefully edited dialogue and sight gags that seem amusing out of context - are egregious examples of bait-and-switch selling tactics.

Gore Verbinski's movie isn't funny, but may have dodged the fraud allegation if it were capably dramatic in the least. It isn't that either. The Weather Man is a dour movie with a "hero" whose personality is fluffed up in commercials, tasteless sexual references to children that aren't advertised, and an inability to deliver the whimsy that is. The movie is more depressing than Doppler radar during hurricane season.

Nicolas Cage plays Dave Spritz, a Chicago television weatherman - not a certified meteorologist, just a Teleprompter reader - with a failed marriage, a famous father (Michael Caine) he can't please, and a network job that, by all evidence presented, he has no business applying for. Dave puts Cage in hangdog mode, the least affable of his limited screen personas; all frowns, forced smiles and monotone griping.

Dave wants the network job but is too depressed to wholeheartedly chase it. He wants his wife (Hope Davis) and children back and we don't blame them for declining. His father, an award-winning author, gave up on Dave long ago and we completely understand, so any conciliatory moves ring false. People on the street throw fast food at Dave - the previews get that right, at least - but Verbinski and screenwriter Steve Conrad turn that into miscalculated symbolism rather than a running gag.

The movie hits rock bottom when dealing with Dave's children. Shelly (Gemmenne de la Pena, with no obvious talent) is grossly overweight and shunned by classmates except for vulgar references to her genitals outlined by tight pants. The term used to describe it is discussed several times to uncomfortable effect. Mike (Nicholas Hoult) is in drug therapy for marijuana use, and his counselor (Gil Bellows) is a transparent pedophile, a subplot further dulling any attempts at comedy.

If a movie deals with such raunchy or provocative topics, especially with minors, the least filmmakers should do is suggest it to moviegoers beforehand. But the ads only ridicule Shelly for her obesity and don't mention Mike at all. This movie, not Cinderella Man, should come with a money-back guarantee, for an entirely different reason: It stinks.

What's good about The Weather Man that avoids an F grade? Well, it's less than two hours long, cinematographer Phedon Papamichael occasionally finds beauty in Chicago's icy conditions and pedestrian-packed sidewalks, and Caine keeps his head and dignity above the material. Other than that, it's a wholly cloudy movie with 100 percent chance of insignificance after its opening weekend.

Grade: D

Director: Gore Verbinski

Cast: Nicolas Cage, Michael Caine, Hope Davis, Gemmenne de la Pena, Nicholas Hoult, Gil Bellows, Michael Rispoli

Screenplay: Steve Conrad

Rating: R; profanity, sexual content

Running time: 100 min.

[Last modified October 26, 2005, 10:11:06]