Richard Crouse

The forecast for The Weather Man is not good. Stormy skies lie ahead for Nicolas Cage who plays David Spritz, a television weatherman in Chicago who is up for a gig on a national morning show based in New York. His career is progressing well enough, but his personal life is a wreck. He has an ex-wife, two kids who don’t like him and a disapproving father who rains on his parade every chance he gets.

The problem with The Weather Man is tone. Billed as both a comedy and a drama—a dramedy if you will—it is neither. Clumsy writing blunts funny moments and the drama doesn’t work because we don’t really care about these characters. Cage plays Spritz as a self-absorbed schmuck who comes to realize that his existence is meaningless. I agree with him.