THE WEATHER MAN
US, 2005, 101 minutes, Colour.
Nicholas Cage, Michael Caine, Hope Davis, Gemmenne de la Pena, Nicholas Hoult, Michael Rispoli, Gil Bellows.
Directed by Gore Verbinsky.
Maybe it’s the desperation of the marketing people, but the advertising for The Weater Man keep referring to it as a comedy. This is misleading since most people who believe advertising expect comedies to be laugh out loud affairs. This is not. While there can be fine weather, we usually associate the weather forecasters, especially on television, with prospective bad weather.
This is not to say that The Weather Man is not worth seeing. It is just better not to go along under false pretences. (Director Gore Verbinski is also more associated with comedy: Mouse Hunt, The Mexican and The Pirates of the Carribean).
This is a film about being miserable. Nicholas Cage, who really can look lugubrious and whose laughter can sometimes seem an effort, is well cast as David Spritz, a Chicago weather man whose forecast in life seems as bleak as the weather over the state of Illinois. People throw fast food at him in disapproval as if he were actually responsible for the weather they don’t like (and he wonders why it is always disposable fast food that they throw). David’s marriage has broken up (and, judging from the flashbacks he is mostly to blame, too edgy, not listening, angry and intolerant). His twelve year old daughter is fat, moody, verbally bullied and suffering because of her parents’ bickering. (He tries archery with her but she loses interest because she was really interested in hunting and killing animals.) His fifteen year old son is in drug rehabilitation program (not realising that his supervisor is a molester). His father, a severe but well-regarded Pulitzer Prizewinning author whom his son is devoted to) is terminally ill. There is one sign of a rainbow. He is being offered a national TV spot by Hello America – but he is well on the way to botching this opening. Not exactly comedy material –especially when it is being presented very seriously.
This, of course, is a nightmare of the American Dream and the audience is asked to share it quite relentlessly (with a few smiling moments which might justify ‘comedy’ but don’t).
The danger with being miserable is that it leads to self-pity and this is what is wrong with David in his depression. He wants to get back with his wife (Hope Davis). He wants to help his daughter and son (and does manage to reach out to them both). He wants to reach out to his father, Michael Caine, (but when his turn comes to make a tribute at ‘the living funeral’, the lights go out). However, there is a fine, moving, compensatory scene where father and son listen to Bob Seeger’s song about being a rock of security.
Americans like happy endings – and The Weather Man has a semi-happy ending (or is it really much more realistic and much less?). A film well worth reflecting on.
1.A wry comedy? A serious drama? Comic and satiric touches? How well did the film combine each element?
2.The use of the Chicago settings: homes, television studios, the Illinois countryside, the seasons, wintry? The comparison with New York City? Authentic atmosphere?
3.The title, jobs? The weather man in himself? His work, performance, television style? Audience response? The people in the studios? The people in the street? Asking the weather man questions? Expecting pleasant answers, not prepared for his moods? Their throwing things at him, especially disposable fast food?
4.David Spritz and his telling his story? His glum moods, self-pity, memories, especially for his wife and children, seeing himself and not seeing himself as blameworthy? His relationship with his father? His memories of his father? The clashes with his wife? The alienation of his children? The symbol of bad weather?
5.David as morose? His visiting his father, talking with him, his father’s career, his father’s expectations of him? His satisfaction with his job as a weather man? His writing his novel – and then destroying it? Taking his father to the doctor, the card on the seat, his father’s not reacting? His father’s demands, wanting coffee? The fact that he carried only one dollar and was often found without the means to buy things? His father finding him wanting? The interaction in their drives? Finding his father at his home, his father’s concern about Shelley? His seeing his father later, the diagnosis, the need to go to New York City? His decision to take his daughter with him? The experiences of her taking him to the archery practice and her disregard, her reaction to the hurt from the bow? Taking her to dance classes? His father’s concern about the bullying and the names? In New York, the bonds, buying her clothes, praising her? His father wanting him to get a drink at the hospital? Not being able to? His having the drink himself? The news about his father’s illness? The short time? The decision to have the living funeral, his going along with it, with his mother? His beginning his speech and the lights failing? The nature of his speech, the quote? Talking to his father in the car, his father not understanding – but later appreciating it? The bond between father and son? His father’s death, the funeral? The similarities to his father, the differences?
6.Noreen, his past love for his wife, their children? The fights? The issue of the tartare sauce? The reaction of the children? Russ and his presence in the house, David’s anger with him? The fight? The children and their not wanting to listen to the fighting? The parents’ hopes for their children? David wanting to come back, Noreen unable to, anger with him? The arrest of Michael? The search, the effect on each of them? The effect on David, his seeking out the counsellor, punching him? David’s decision to go to New York? The end with the family watching him on television?
7.Shelley and her size, the school bullying, her not realising the sexual innuendo of the insults? Her benign interpretation? Her life, sullen, the clothes, and her dumpiness? Wanting to try archery – being hurt by the bow, not succeeding, her father paying for the fees, her really wanting to hunt and kill animals? Dance and her inability? At home, the decision to go to New York, the transformation with the clothes? The possibilities for her future?
8.Mike, his age, problems, drug-taking? His being on the course? The supervision? Visits home? Don and his counselling, the sexual approach, the photos? Mike’s arrest, his assault of Don? The interrogations? David and his threats to the counsellor?
9.The portrait of Robert Spritzel? Michael Caine’s style? His presentation and prizes? His illness? His career, novels? The Pulitzer Prize? His relationship with his wife? His expectations of his son? Not supporting him? Taking him for granted? The visits to the hospital, the one dollar, the drink? His illness, terminal? Going to New York? The support of the children? His living funeral, the reaction to David’s speech?
10.New York City, David and his going for the job, the audition, the possibilities? His delaying in responding, the phone calls, the anxiety? His finally accepting? His success?
11.The sketch of the counsellor, child abuse, the advances, the technique, the photo-taking? David’s confrontation and the fight?
12.Crises in the family, lack of communication, effort and no effort, self-pity and anger?
13.The possibility of some kind of hope, a break in the weather?
