Our recent theoretical and experimental investigation of the photothermal effect in a planar metamaterial absorber is reviewed in the present paper. The observed ultrasensitive photothermal heating in such an absorber nanostructure irradiated by a pulsed white-light source is elaborated with a simple yet compelling heat transfer model, which is subsequently solved with a finite-element method. The simulation results not only agree with the experimental finding, but also provide more detailed understanding of the temperature transition in the complex system.