The Weather Man (2005)

We're supposed to identify with Dave Spritz (Nicolas Cage) -- but he's so dang mopey that it's pretty hard to do so. He's got a ton of money for a job he's unqualified to hold, an ex-wife who's pretty dang tolerant of his presence when we know (via both flashback and present-day examples), that he's the responsible party in their dissolving relationship, and children who seem to like him despite the fact he doesn't seem to really earn it. He should have been rejoicing in his good fortune -- a family who loves him and a job he doesn't deserve, but instead he's an unlikable zero. His running mental commentary, which might have let us understand him better, is usually just a series of disjointed sentences.

It's listed as a comedy, but everything on screen -- from the characters to the weather -- was dreary, and it kind of seeped into my living room. I was especially put off by the way the "camel-toe" segment was handled. We're treated to several visual close-ups of what, exactly, a camel-toe looks like, when it'd already been verbally described. This is a middle-school-aged child being discussed. I was appalled.

Michael Caine, as Cage's successful-writer father, single-handedly saves this film from being an absolute waste of time. The scenes with him don't really work, but he's interesting nonetheless.

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