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Weather Man, The
Paramount Pictures


7.6

based on 37 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 44 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for strong language and sexual content

Starring Nicolas Cage, Michael Caine, Hope Davis, Gemmenne de la Peña, Nicholas Hoult, Michael Rispoli, Gil Bellows, and Judith McConnell

Nicholas Cage stars as popular Chicago TV weatherman David Spritz who has a shot at the big time when "Hello America," a national morning show calls him for an audition. At the top of the world professionally, David is approaching disaster on a personal level as rapidly as the weather changes. His painful divorce, his dad's illness, and trouble with his kids have David poised on the knife's edge between stability and calamity. Trying to gain control of his situation, David slowly comes to realize that life, much like the weather, is completely unpredictable. (Paramount Pictures)

GENRE(S):	Comedy \| Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Steve Conrad
DIRECTED BY:	Gore Verbinski
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: February 21, 2006 Theatrical: October 28, 2005
RUNNING TIME:	102 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

This film has moments of uncommon observation and touching insight.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

In The Weather Man, Nicolas Cage, a great oddball movie star who sometimes takes enormous risks, has a good, risky part again.

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

The Weather Man begs to be taken seriously and can't easily be dismissed; it kicks around in your mind for a good long while after you've seen it. Cage, who does his finest work since "Leaving Las Vegas," has stripped himself bare of the patented tics and mannerisms he honed in one Jerry Bruckheimer movie too many.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Written by Steve Conrad, this is the smartest script director Gore Verbinski has ever had, and he makes the most of it, aided by a strong cast.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Winda Benedetti

Cage trots out all of this character's flaws in a form so raw and true you can't help but cringe in your seat as he careens from one self-inflicted interpersonal failure to another.

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

It works as an intriguingly offbeat character study while offering Nicolas Cage a chance to show why he used to be considered one of the top actors of his generation.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

This is the sort of small, intimate movie that, if it had been made on a low budget by independent actors, would be celebrated to the skies.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Reaction to The Weather Man may depend upon an individual's ability to tolerate spending 100 minutes in the company of an unpleasant protagonist. There's no doubt this can be an uncomfortable experience, but it can also be rewarding for those who are willing to endure the discomfort.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

The movie gives actors many chances to shine, and they do. But I went away most impressed with Verbinski.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

The film is certainly worth seeing, but it should be better than it is.

TV Guide Ken Fox

Heartfelt and often very funny.

Slate David Edelstein

A fine movie, beautifully acted, but it isn't easy to love--or to watch. It's a parade of miseries, made even more miserable by Gore Verbinski's direction.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Shines the light on a special kind of heroism -- the guts to face up to yourself and make changes. What makes this so emotionally compelling is the way Dave scrambles from this deep vale of cluelessness to something approaching moral maturity.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

A surprisingly wry, contemplative movie.

Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky

The Weather Man is not the wacky movie Paramount is selling, nor is it cynical Oscar bait. It's just a little movie about little people trying not to get wet or freeze to death or get burned when they walk outside, and good luck with all that.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

The scenes between Cage and Caine are by far the film's most affecting. The two men don't seem to share the same gene pool, which only helps their dynamic.

The New Yorker David Denby

The director, Gore Verbinski, would seem to be an odd man for this material, but he and Steven Conrad hold their ground, sticking to their conviction that Dave's story should play as a belated-coming-of-age movie.

Village Voice Michael Atkinson

The most supremely odd American film of the year.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Screenwriter Steve Conrad has less success with the female characters: The always dependable Davis is forced into shrewish territory, and David's mother (Judith McConnell) is so barely present that it's a wonder she's written in at all.

USA Today Mike Clark

This is one glum outing, with occasional pings of wry wit and hearty chuckles.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

Neither the screenplay nor the direction has the requisite depth to turn the banality of one unremarkable life into the stuff of Chekhov, much less of Mr. Payne.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

In The Weather Man, Nicolas Cage doesn't so much play a protagonist, warts and all, as he plays a protagonist who is all warts.

Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar

What ultimately keeps The Weather Man from being a better film than it is that it doesn't no when to quit.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

The movie mostly proves that cutting-edge humiliations are best absorbed in 25-minute segments on HBO.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

A sour, deflating and ultimately unlikable black comedy about how awful life can be.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

Dave is one of the most ineffectual characters ever to have an entire movie built around him.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

Nicolas Cage does such a persuasive job of portraying Chicago TV weatherman Dave Spritz as a train wreck of a guy that you wonder whether this might actually be a training film for a psychoanalytic convention on hopeless cases.

Premiere Peter Debruge

Their movie is cold, and I mean that not as a weather pun, but in the sense that it's impossible to warm up to a character who sees the awful things happening around him strictly in terms of how they affect him.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

There are moments when Cage (with his perpetually worried eyebrows) and Caine (with his inherent emotional elegance) carry the picture admirably enough.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Cage works hard to find traces of humanity in a man that God forgot, as do screenwriter Steven Conrad and director Gore Verbinski. But in the face of a character no one cares about, can audiences be faulted for asking: Why should we?

Variety Justin Chang

Aiming for an Alexander Payne-style synthesis of wry comedy and unflinching character study, pic has been made with the utmost sincerity, but the frankly lugubrious material and barely compensating spasms of humor are all but impossible to warm to.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

The Weather Man is what indie misery looks like when re-created by one of Hollywood's big studios.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

The Weather Man belongs to a school of earnest, artsy Hollywood flicks that includes the Michael Douglas-goes-bonkers "Falling Down," and a lineage that goes back to revered 1970s pics like "Five Easy Pieces."

Empire Simon Braund

The film's chill seeps into your bones like a ceaseless cold drizzle. It also suffers from uncomfortably weird tonal shifts.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Stephen Cole

One of those purposefully glum studies in alienation that Hollywood occasionally produces as blue-state specials for disenchanted liberals.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

A guaranteed downer that's devoid of any upside, and free of dangerously entertaining side effects.

New York Post Kyle Smith

Meet American Beastly, perhaps the most bitter studio film of the year.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.6 (out of 10) based on 44 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

D P. gave it a2:
This movie is nothing but a vehicle for blatant advertising of fast food. The ads are totally distracting from the otherwise plausible acting. I do not recommend this movie.

EconomistBR gave it a9:
Very funny movie, great dialogues, and nice adult drama. Cage was great in it. Like the user Holly C said: it's a "raw-life story".

Richard T. gave it a3:
I'm rarely moved to wax unenthusiastic about a movie, but I'll make an exception for this one. This is one of those movies that, as they say, you'll want to think about for a long time afterwards. Don't bother! I've thought about it for a little while afterwards, and the more I thought, the more disgusted I got. This is a pseudo art-film with an unbelievably obtuse lead who is more antagonist (to himself and to reality) than protagonist. The offbeat attempts at humor/angst are merely offbeat. Furthermore, nobody could conceivably be as dense as this character in his personal relationships be this a fast-food, shallow culture or no. Sell anxiety ridden someplace else. We're all stocked up here.

Jeff M. gave it a9:
Totally underrated and often laugh-out-loud funny. Both this film and Lord of War inexplicably got buried by critics and audiences. Nicolas Cage must have run over a nun last fall to warrant this kind of karma.

Jim H. gave it a10:
The people who slated this just live up to the stereotype of Americans having a very basic sense of humour. This just went over their heads. Its a great understated film. You don't need obvious humour and big special effects for a film to be good!

Holly C. gave it an8:
I was very impressed with this movie. I went in pretty ho-hum about even watching it but I'm glad I did. The characters, acting and cinematography were great (Chicago looks fantastic). Michael Caine, the daughter and Nick Cage were probably the best characters (both written and acted). But the raw-life story unfolding is the centerpiece. The main character's journey figuring out who he is, seems kind of like a common theme in movies (identity crisis) but this story was still pretty unique and quite raw. Props to the writer-- and I highly recommend this movie.

Melody B. gave it a9:
At times it was very slow, but all in all this movie made a lot of sense and like ebert said, it WAS insightful. what more do you want, to be a comedy or something fun? its MEANT to be a downer movie. jeez.

Weather Man, The Paramount Pictures

Weather Man, The
Paramount Pictures