Groundhog day irritates me a little. It never used to until my wife pointed out that the whole premise of this film was to get better as a man for Andie McDowell, and, it made me think about it a lot. I remember thinking, damn, actually, my wife is right. The premise of this film is a bit absurd, that he literally needs to get better at almost everything to snag the woman that he could never get -- Rita Hanson (Andie McDowell)
Talk about high maintenance or what!
Nevertheless, that point aside it's still a good film to watch. It's another one of those films where the star of the show is reliving the same day over and over again. I've read quite a bit into the theory of this film and early scripts tell us that he started to relive the same day over and over again because an ex girlfriend put a nasty curse on him, however they removed this at a later date and the film doesn't explain at all why he was doomed to relive the same day.
At the beginning of the film, Phil (Bill Murray) is a news reporter, sent to Punxsutawney to film the groundhog day -- the event where the groundhog will either see a shadow or not, which will predict whether spring will start early or we they will have six more weeks of winter.
It's also worth noting that Phil is a godawful person. He's irritable, he's rude, he's sexist - and not by today's standards, but by the standards of the 1990's. It's only fitting that's he becomes trapped in a daily cycle of reliving the day over and over again to become a better version of himself.
At first phil is stuck in the holiday inn he booked himself in at for another day. This really irritates him because he doesn't like the town, he doesn't like the people, and he thinks the job that he's been given is not fitting for a person of his talents. Basically he resents coming to this godawful town. But, waking up the very next day he finds himself in the day before.
The first few times of reliving this day he gets beside himself with worry. All he wants to do is leave this dumb town and its stupid people behind. He stumbles on a bar and tells three random men he met his problems, to which they explain to him that he's doing it all wrong. If he's reliving the same day over and over again then he has the freedom to do whatever he wants and have absolutely no consequences for it.
And that's when the fun starts. Again, I won't spoil it for you if you've not seen it, but it's a good laugh. And a bit of a cry too as we feel sorry for phil stuck in his own world over and over again. At some point it's going to get incredibly boring -- to which it does eventually.
This is a warm hearted comedy about a man that's lopsided to the negative teaching himself to think differently and changing his life around to being the best version of himself. A definite watch if you like light-hearted feel-good comedy.
I've always liked this film because in a way it's followed in my footsteps, albeit there was no reliving the same day over again for me! But definitely a similar path.
A good watch!!
One of my favorite films!
It's fun to arguing about how long he was actually trapped in the day. To actually master everything he masters, that's at least a few lifetimes of practice there. I've seen it suggested by at least a few people involved in the film that it was over 1000 years.
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I enjoyed this movie very much