The Weather Man (2005)

Being fan of quirky films, when first heard of this back in 2005 i really wanted to see it and finally in 2007 i got chance too, and well....meh.

Tells story of Weather man David Spritz (Nicolas Cage) who has split from his wife who now lives with their two children. He also has a dying father (Michael Caine) and is hated by the public because of his well paid easy job.

Ok well it sure is quirky and well directed. The general mise-en-scene and all that is fine, what i didn't like was the tone and message it was bringing across. Nicolas Cage is pretty dull in terms of line delivery and persona at the best of times. However having him play a character always down on himself, always complaining and when take into account its played by major movie star who i'm sure has little to complain about, this eventually begins to annoy. In the end i just didn't really care what happened to his character. Though it's not all bad, the story with his wife and scenes between them are funny, a scene where we hear his thoughts is also good, and the respective stories in relation to his kids are also well done. Michael Caine also pulls in a very good performance, and a pretty good american accent.

On another bad note though, i feel at times it gets too bogged down with symbolism and because of this sometimes comes off a bit like "We're so clever."
All in all, it does have redeeming qaulties. The family stuff is very funny and well played out. at its core its a heartfelt movie about family but you have to sit through Cage feeling sorry for himself with no real narrative resolution. It's almost as if they said "we're making a quirky movie, heres a check list of things to include" and this ticks every box and comes off as at times as pretentious. Though i'm a fan of Wes Anderson movies, which also get accused of being pretentious, so maybe Weather man deserves a rewatch lol