Fifty years ago, after this downer of a set-up, The Weather Man might have gone on to show how Dave comes to terms with his self-loathing - how he gains perspective on his life, how he learns that every job can have honor if done with a sense of service, and how he realizes that he’s blessed to live in a country that bestows such riches for enjoyable labor.
Today, on the other hand, the entire purpose of the film seems to be to confirm for Dave that his first instinct about himself is correct - he is a joke and a sham. Now he just needs to learn to be okay with that.
These days Hollywood has a tendency to mistake negativity for insight, depression for honesty.
None of the characters in The Weather Man have much regard for one another, as evidenced by the frequent shrieking of obscenities – husband to wife, child to father, child to grandfather, father to child and so on. Even supposedly sympathetic characters, like Dave’s betrayed wife and his cancer-ridden father, come off as cruel and uncomfortable. On the one hand we don’t think it’s right that Dave cheated on his wife, but after being exposed to her shrill condescension for a few minutes, we don’t think it’s entirely wrong either.
It’s as though the filmmakers believe the whole world will tell you they’re miserable if only they were brave enough to say so. Indeed, Michael Caine’s fatherly advice to his son comprises the story’s only overt message, and it’s a wrist-slasher: “In this s*** life, you’ve just gotta chuck some things.”
The Weatherman mines a few authentic moments, such as Dave’s pain at seeing another man move in on his family and the myriad dangers faced by children of divorce. But none bear the slightest mark of hope.
Strangely, the filmmakers never acknowledge Dave’s most obvious problem: He’s selfish. Like everyone else populating this film, Dave lives only for himself and for his own satisfaction. Naturally this leads him to turn his mental focus inward, and he obsesses on his feelings until he brings himself to the brink of psychological collapse.
Even when Dave achieves his moment of clarity, "All of the people I could be," he reflects, "they got fewer and fewer until finally they got reduced to only one. And now that's who I am. The weatherman," it’s only in the shallow sense that he’s decided to give up on becoming more.
Thank goodness, in my experience, this kind of inverse egotism isn’t typical to forecasting. If my husband ever displayed any of the characteristics of weatherman Dave, I’d probably chuck a Big Gulp at him myself.