Weather Man comes to us courtesy of Gore Verbinsky, director of Pirates of the Carribean and you wouldn't ever suspect it given the tone of this film. That is good given this film is not for children but a brooding and dreary meditation on both the attitudes of present day culture and the confusion of middle age. Nicholas Cage is the title character, a Chicago TV personality whose life begins to spin out of control, forcing him into a major existential crisis. As things start to unravel he finds himself examining his life, his failed marriage, his relationship with his dying father (the great Michael Caine) and his increasing inability to connect with his teenage son and daughter. Everyone in his life seem unhappy or bored, (with the exception of his father - a Pulitzer prize winning author who learns early on in the film that he has lymphoma.) As if things weren't bad enough, our Weather man must also suffer the indignities of his ignorant and hostile TV viewers, who regard him as an inept shmuck who lucked into an easy, high paying job. (A running gag in the film features Cage being regularly pelted with fast food garbage). Which works as a hilarious metaphor about the downside of living one's life in the public eye.

Though the film may appear bleak, it is filled with enough poignancy and dark humor to make it entertaining in much the same way that About Schmidt was. Cage also keeps the laughs coming with some truly inspired narrative monologues. As the film progresses so does his inner-turmoil, and in a rather juvenile attempt to maintain his sanity and sublimate his anger, Cage takes up archery. As you would expect, however these efforts to project his rage only exacerbate the drama in his life and as we reach the final act things continue to get more and more complicated.

The conclusion of this film certainly doesn't offer any sort of conventional resolution, other than a few minced steps toward improved relations with his children and his father. In the end we are left with brilliant performances and an honest portrait of the confusion of life and the difficulty inherent in trying to predict how any of it will turn out.