Groundhog Day (1993) director Harold Ramis, based on a story by Danny Rubin, staring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell. Murray plays Phil Connors an egocentric Pittsburgh TV weatherman who, during a hated assignment covering the annual Groundhog Day event in Punxsutawney on the 2nd February, finds himself repeating the same day over and over again…
Over the last ten years or so I’ve got into the habit of re-watching this movie on the 2nd February, it reminds me of what my life has felt like in times past, and could become again, if I get too preoccupied with myself.
It’s one of those movies which leads audiences to endlessly speculate on it’s meaning. Perhaps the dominant view is that it’s about an individual over concerned with ‘self’, leading to unpleasant situations that continually repeat, until he can transcend them and let go - putting other people rather than himself at the centre of his universe. A tale of self-improvement that looks outward, rather than being focused on one’s own need to be ‘in control’. It’s also a hilarious comedy!
Ryan Gilbey writing in The Observer 1.2.04:
‘While Groundhog Day is undeniably charming, it shares a certain stubbornness of purpose with its star. From the moment Rubin typed the first line of his first draft, he resolved to withhold all explanations about how Connors came to be stuck in a time-loop. Co-written and directed by Harry Ramis, the finished film exploits the witty device of a narrative that achieves momentum without moving forward. Rubin refused to surrender the enigma at the movie's core; the absence of narrative exposition remains the most audacious element of Groundhog Day, not to mention one of the most daring ellipses in Hollywood cinema.’
…As well as making its impact on cinema and language, Groundhog Day has exerted a strong influence on religious thinking. Rubin and Ramis continue to receive letters congratulating them on a positive representation of Buddhism. Presumably they file such correspondence alongside similar messages in which the film is claimed by Jesuit priests, rabbis, and followers of the Chinese spiritual movement Falun Dafa, aka Falun Gong. All the letters are characterised by a singleminded belief that the movie endorses the author's faith. 'At first, I would get mail saying, "You must be a Christian, because the movie so beautifully expresses Christian belief,"'Ramis said recently. 'Then rabbis started calling, saying they were preaching the film as their next sermon.'
Roger Ebert writing in the Chicago Sun 30.1.05:
‘Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, in his case, doesn't creep in at its petty pace from day to day, but gets stuck like a broken record. After the third or fourth day, the enormity of his predicament is forced upon him. He is free to change what he says and does from one Feb. 2 to the next, but it will always be Feb. 2 for everyone else in the world, and he will always start from the same place. They will repeat themselves unless he changes the script, but tomorrow they will have forgotten their new lines and be back to the first draft of Feb. 2.
...One night in a bowling alley, sitting at the bar, he says almost to himself: “What would you do if you were stuck in one place, and everything that you did was the same, and nothing mattered?” The sad sack next to him at the bar overhears him and answers: “That about sums it up for me.” Slowly, inexpertly, Phil begins to learn from his trial runs through Feb. 2'.
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