The Weather Man
Paramount Pictures | Release Date: October 28, 2005 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
61
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 37 Critic Reviews
Positive:
20
Mixed:
14
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
This film has moments of uncommon observation and touching insight. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
In The Weather Man, Nicolas Cage, a great oddball movie star who sometimes takes enormous risks, has a good, risky part again. Read full review
80
L.A. WeeklyScott 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. Read full review
80
Chicago ReaderJ.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. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
The movie gives actors many chances to shine, and they do. But I went away most impressed with Verbinski. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
The film is certainly worth seeing, but it should be better than it is. Read full review
75
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Heartfelt and often very funny. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWinda 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. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleRuthe 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. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene 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. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames 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. Read full review
70
The A.V. ClubScott 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. Read full review
70
Dallas ObserverRobert 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. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesCarina Chocano
A surprisingly wry, contemplative movie. Read full review
70
Washington PostDesson 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. Read full review
70
SlateDavid 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. Read full review
70
The New YorkerDavid 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. Read full review
70
Village VoiceMichael Atkinson
The most supremely odd American film of the year. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie 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. Read full review
63
USA TodayMike Clark
This is one glum outing, with occasional pings of wry wit and hearty chuckles. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterKirk 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. Read full review
60
The New York TimesManohla 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. Read full review
60
Film ThreatPete Vonder Haar
What ultimately keeps The Weather Man from being a better film than it is that it doesn't no when to quit. Read full review
58
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
The movie mostly proves that cutting-edge humiliations are best absorbed in 25-minute segments on HBO. Read full review
58
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
A sour, deflating and ultimately unlikable black comedy about how awful life can be. Read full review
50
VarietyJustin 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. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
The Weather Man is what indie misery looks like when re-created by one of Hollywood's big studios. Read full review
50
Philadelphia InquirerSteven 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." Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJami 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. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Dave is one of the most ineffectual characters ever to have an entire movie built around him. Read full review
50
PremierePeter 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. Read full review
50
SalonStephanie Zacharek
There are moments when Cage (with his perpetually worried eyebrows) and Caine (with his inherent emotional elegance) carry the picture admirably enough. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter 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? Read full review
40
EmpireSimon Braund
The film's chill seeps into your bones like a ceaseless cold drizzle. It also suffers from uncomfortably weird tonal shifts. Read full review
38
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. Read full review
30
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
A guaranteed downer that's devoid of any upside, and free of dangerously entertaining side effects.
25
New York PostKyle Smith
Meet American Beastly, perhaps the most bitter studio film of the year. Read full review
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