OMG! Two Years, y'all! And who would have thought that it would fall on such a fortuitous day?! Being as it is the day, and I haven't looked a this one just yet, it just makes sense to look a comedic classic like Groundhog Day. It's also just sheer lucky coincidence that this film turns 25 this year so we're getting reasons all over the place to take the plunge and do this thing! Before we officially jump in, can I just observe how weird it is that the second anniversary of the founding of this rag falls on the 2nd of February? Okay, that's enough of that.
SO, Groundhog Day incorporates two things that I enjoy very much: comedy from Bill Murray (the cleaner kind), and unexplained temporal loops. It also happens to be one of a handful of great collaborations done by Bill Murray and Harold Ramis. Others include the Ghostbusters films, and Stripes, any of which are pretty darn good. Anyway, Bill Murray plays Phil Connors, a big city weather reporter who just happens to live close enough to Punxsutawney, PA to have to cover the annual celebration of Groundhog Day, the holiday, not the film. I don't think they're specific about how long Phil has had to do this, but you get the impression from context of his loathe and disdain, as well as the fact that he has his trip all laid out in advance, that it's been at least a few times that he's had to do this trip.
Joining Phil are producer Rita Hanson, played by Andie MacDowell, and cameraman Larry, played by Chris Elliot. It seems like Larry has done this thing a time or two, but we're meant to believe that this is the first time that Rita has done it, and it seems as though she's hoping that playing this game could result in some career advancement down the road. She also seems enamored with everything that Phil has grown to despise: the small town with its local yocal charm, the people, who he refers to as small town hicks, and all of the tourists who show up for this one day and turn the entire town on its ear. In a way, this film loosely borrows a few story elements from A Christmas Carol in that Phil, our Scrooge analog, needs to learn an appreciation for a specific holiday and the people associated with it for him, and all of this lesson learning involves a form of time travel.
Phil checks into his own hotel separate from the one that the station had booked and settles in to commiserate the next day's activities. He wakes up at 6 am on Feb 2 to Sonny and Cher's 'I Got You Babe'. There's a declaration that the big day has arrived, and Phil goes to do his thing, which is tape a half-baked report on the main event, and then leave. He's in a hurry to get out of town and home. However, a huge snow storm that he said would miss the town of Punxsutawney hits the town before they can get out, and they become stranded. They return to town for another night, and plans to leave first thing the next morning.
This is where the movie takes a fairly unexpected turn, at least for a straight up comedy. We here the familiar strains of 'I Got You Babe' on the radio, and the declaration that it's Groundhog Day, and Phil realizes that he's about to live the same annoying day all over again. At first, he thinks he must be dreaming, or hallucinating, but as the events of the day begin to unfold exactly as they had before, he slowly begins to realize that perhaps there's something stranger going on. He basically does a repeat of how he did things before, and as the day draws to a close, he once again looks forward to leaving town the next day.
The universe has other plans for Phil Connors. He awakens again in exactly the same manner as before. Sonny and Cher, and a local radio jockey declaring a happy Groundhog Day. I'll not spoil all of the details as it could become tedious attempting to write it. It's much more easily understood when seen, and it's more fun that way! At any rate, once Phil comes to grips with the idea that he's going to be repeating the same day ad infinitum, he starts to do some pretty dark things, at least at first. He makes several attempts to take his own life in ever more brutal and disturbing ways. He also attempts to kill Punxsutawney Phil as well as himself thinking that if the rodent dies, then perhaps the curse will be lifted. However, each time he does this, he's thwarted.
Eventually, Phil resigns himself to the fact that death can't break the vicious cycle that he's found himself in. So he takes to stalking the town and memorizing their actions throughout the day. He also starts taking up hobbies and mastering them. He even eventually gets over his self-centered attitude and starts helping people everyday. At some point, he realizes that he has feelings for Rita and he begins to incorporate her more into his daily activities. However, it's hard to woo a woman when your a self-righteous, pretentious jerk wad, which Bill Murray plays to a fault. Once Phil is rejected a few times, he makes it his business to win the heart of Rita. Day in and day out he tries new things to try to impress her, and ingratiate himself upon her, but always to failure. That's not for lack of trying though. Some folks have tried to approximate how long Phil was stuck in the loop, and the best estimate put it at somewhere around 40 years based on how many different things he learned to do, and how well he learned to do them.
To keep things succinct, we'll skip to when he finally breaks the cycle. It all comes together once he learns to put others before himself, and once he finally learns that the key to Rita's heart is simply to be the best version of himself that he can be. He has to learn that all of the impressive, gimmicky hobbies in the world are no substitute for an honest, and open relationship. They spend a heart-warming evening together where she buys him a date with him in an auction, he sculpts her face out of ice, and he tells her that even if the loop never ends, he's finally found happiness because he's fallen in love with her. They fall asleep in his bed, and the next morning, it's 'I Got You Babe', but we see that Rita is still there, it's Feb 3, and Phil has finally become a marginally decent human being.
This movie has endured for 25 years, y'all. What makes it so great? Well, it's got great atmosphere first of all. What I mean is that the movie takes place in a quaint, sleepy tourist trap with one thing working for them during the one time of year that anyone cares. The atmosphere is that of a carnival and it's a lot of fun! Second, it's got characters that we can believe, even if we can't exactly get behind them at first. Looking at you, Phil. Rita is a sweet, naive producer who's just getting her feet wet, and Larry is just a genuinely nice guy that is pretty hard to dislike. Phil is a douche, but he gets the growth arc so... Third, the acting in this film is phenomenal! Even background characters are just amazing to watch, and they're all hilarious when they need to be. And the chemistry between all of the cast is just excellent all the way through. Lastly, and I think most importantly to this film, is the fact that is begs the viewer to ask the question, "What would I do if I were repeating the same day for forever?" I think, implausible though it may be, it's a fascinating thought exercise to undertake as I think that the introspection can really tell you quite a bit about who you really are. I feel like that's the number one reason that this movie resonates so well with people even after a quarter of a century. If you haven't seen it, I can't recommend it enough, and if you have, there's no better time than now to watch it again anyway! I hope you've enjoyed the effort over the last couple of years, and I hope that you'll stick around to see what we offer up in the years to come! Happy Groundhog Day!
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