Directed by Gore Verbinski

Paramount Pictures

3 1/2 STARS



Who among us has not wanted to throw a Wendy’s Frosty at Nicolas Cage? Or any famous person, for that matter? There’s something nauseating about the American culture of celebrity, where the great goal is to be seen on TV, regardless of talent. In Gore Verbinski’s new film, “The Weather Man,” the titular character is actually the target of such attacks, and the film itself might be read as a pie-in-the-face of our culture of celebrity and consumption.

But what kind of pie? “The Weather Man” strives to be a pie of substance and succeeds to a certain degree; with its sense of humor and light social commentary, it certainly avoids the vapidity of fast food.

Nicolas Cage plays Dave Spritz, an overpaid, oversexed, and unloved Chicago weatherman coming apart at the seams. He’s recently split with his wife, Noreen (Hope Davis), his kids are troubled, and people keep throwing food at him. When his father (Michael Caine) is diagnosed with cancer, Spritz takes it as a sign he has to get his life in order; he starts with winning back his estranged family in an effort to win his dying father’s respect.

Whatever one thinks of Cage’s style (he seems as polarizing a figure as the one he plays), he does a fine job of portraying the lonely everyman in search of existential meaning. Those who enjoyed Cage’s comic bumbling in “Raising Arizona” or his portrayal of depressive self absorption in “Adaptation” will find something to like here.

As an archetype of a lonely middle aged man, Spritz has both his literary and cinematic forebears: Frank Bascombe in “The Sportswriter”’ and Lester Burnham in “American Beauty”’ both come to mind. Unlike these men, however, whose alienation stems in part from being faceless strangers in the crowd, Spritz is a celebrity.

Like any average Joe, he’s constantly screwing up with his kids and wife, but these mistakes are all the more pathetic in light of his glib on-camera persona. Though the depressive aspect of Cage’s character risks monotony, Steve Conrad’s script puts him through a variety of humiliating encounters that bring out the more narcissistic and violent sides of Spritz’s madness.

In this latest film, Gore Verbinski seems to be maturing away from the juvenile swashbuckling action of “Pirates of the Caribbean” (it was filmed in a break while finishing that trilogy), but old habits die hard, and “The Weather Man” is peppered with violence. At the peak of his stress, Spritz slaps Noreen’s new boyfriend across the face with his gloves in an impulsive parody of bygone gentlemanly honor. Though primarily comic, this moment reflects the film’s general atmosphere of nostalgia incarnated in Spritz’s father, Robert.

Verbinski makes a quiet critique of contemporary culture through the perspective of Robert, a fading Pulitzer-winning novelist. The world he sees as petty, cheap, throwaway, is reflected in Dave Spritz’s chipper weather reports, the fast food thrown at him, and the no-place settings he occupies (malls, hospitals, fancy hotels). When Robert appraises his son’s professional success, saying, “That’s quite an American accomplishment,” his words have just enough edge to give the film a hint of satire.

Despite the comic moments (Sir Michael Caine’s description of a “camel toe” may be worth the price of admission) and the mild social commentary, one finds it difficult to really care about the plight of Spritz and his family. Perhaps it’s because he and his father are the only fleshed-out characters. More likely it’s the sheer affluence involved; a main source of conflict is whether Spritz will get a job that boosts his income from $200,000 to over $1 million. With this as background, there’s little at stake; at the end of the day, everyone is going to do okay, and if not, they’ll probably work it out in therapy.