The Weather Man is a depressing film. But it's also darkly funny as well. The performances are uniformly outstanding and the cinematography is wonderful. Perhaps what I'm trying to say is that, The Weather Man is a very good film.

Nicholas Cage is David Spritz, a Chicago weather man whose life is a complete mess. His marriage is over. His kids are dealing with all kinds of problems. His father (Michael Caine), a Pulitzer Prize winning author, is dying. On top of all that, Dave finds his job meaningless, and people think he's an asshole. One of the regular things he has to deal with is having fast food thrown at him. Of course, Dave wants to get things together, but as he finds, it isn't easy, and real life doesn't always turn out the way we dreamed things would when we were kids.

Cage gives another outstanding performance. I wish he would keep doing films that are dramatic/comedic (Adaptation, Matchstick Men) and just ignore the whole action star thing (National Treasure). Hope Davis, as his estranged wife, is appropriately frustrated and frustrating - she has a lot of appeal to me in many ways, the kind of woman I find interesting. I'll take this moment to recommend the little-seen gem, The Secret Lives of Dentists, with her and Cambell Scott. Very good. Nicholas Hoult (About A Boy) plays Dave's son, and newcomer Gemmenne de la Pena plays his troubled daughter. Michael Caine is likely to get an Oscar nomination for his role in the film.

The film isn't neccessarly happy. But it's real. As Michael Caine's character, Robert Spritzl points out, "Do you know that the harder thing to do, and the right thing to do, are usually the same thing? "Easy" doesn't enter into grown-up life." Not something you hear at the cineplex every night, from the mouths of big name actors, but a point well taken none-the-less.