"The Weather Man" is about as hard to pin down as a Windy City winter forecast: blizzard in the morning, thawing sunshine in the afternoon. Alternately funny and painful, the movie is best pegged as dark comedy, and that's a tricky genre to negotiate. But director Gore Verbinski ("The Ring," "Pirates of the Caribbean") steers it with finesse, ferreting humor from dreadfully difficult situations: cancer, death, divorce and attempted child molestation. You elicit laughs from material like that only with the wriest, driest wit and expert, deadpan delivery. For that, "The Weather Man" employs a pair of pros — well, one professional and one outright master. Read the full review
Popular Chicago weatherman Dave Spritz has a shot at the big time when a national TV show calls him for an audition. Professionally, Dave is on top of the world, but his personal life is a mess. A painful divorce, his dad's illness and trouble with his kids have him poised on the knife's edge between stability and disaster. The harder he tries to control events, the more he finds that life, like the weather, is completely unpredictable.
Director: Gore Verbinski
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Michael Caine, Hope Davis, Gemmenne de la Pena, Nicholas Hoult
Run time: 102 minutes
Release date: Oct. 28, 2005
Rating: R for strong language and sexual content.
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Cox News Service: A-
"You're likely to laugh out loud — moments before the movie slugs you in the gut again."
Middletown Journal: C-
"Verbinski tries to make The Weather Man into a quirky look at a man's tortured psyche, and he does, but only Caine brings the movie a badly needed dose of warmth."
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