Groundhog Day (1993)

Groundhog Day is a fascinating and controversial movie by Harold Ramis with Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell in the leading parts. Fascinating, because it has already been watched and loved by several generations of viewers. Controversial, because despite the general lightness of the movie Ramis managed to touch upon the depths of peoples souls having brought to light the hidden inner forces of the protagonist. Groundhog Day will still seem hilarious and fresh after your second, tenth or 50th watch. Moreover, you will discover new features in this indubitable masterpiece among comedy movies. Clever, kind, romantic, with a subtle philosophical note, Groundhog Day will surely be loved by adults and children.

Phil Connors (Bill Murray) is a selfish and arrogant meteorologist, who hates his annual visits to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, where he and his team have to cover the traditional festival called Groundhog Day. On this day, the 2nd of February, Connors’ namesake, a groundhog called Phil is believed to prognosticate the end of the winter. Connors feels very irritated and eager to get home as soon as possible, but a snowstorm makes him stay. The next day Phil wakes up in the hotel in Punxsutawney and it’s…the 2nd of February! The events of the day before go on in the same way, but the next morning the 3rd of February doesn’t come as well. Phil Connors has got into a time loop and he is doomed to wake up dozens of times on this very day. Every other day will be like the previous one, except Phil himself. He will live through all possible shades of human emotions – from a complete shock to delight, from most desperate suicide attempts to catharsis and an absolute moral evolution. As a bonus he finds his true love in the person of his beautiful colleague Rita (Andie MacDowell).

The plot of Groundhog Day reminds a computer game, where the hero is constantly trying to pass on the next level but fails again and again. This feature unites the masterpiece of 1993 with The Hangover, another successful quest-movie of a more recent period. However, if the personage of Bill Murray re-lives one and the same day over and over again, The Hangover heroes have practically lost a day, which has vanished from their memories in a very strange way. The plot revolves around their extremely funny attempts to collect the pieces of this puzzle and to restore the chain of the events.

As far as some curious facts about Groundhog Day and its parallels with other movies are concerned, it’s interesting to note that originally Ramis wanted Tom Hanks for the role of Phil Connors, but then thought that Hanks was "too cute" for this personage. However, in Larry Crowne, written and directed by Hanks, he played a role very much reminding of that he failed to get in 1993. His Larry Crowne is another man who manages to change his life for the best being on the verge of despair.

The fantastic idea of a time loop, on which the plot of Groundhog Day is based, has already become classic and was later developed in a number of full-length films and TV projects. For example, the protagonist of Source Code lives through the last 8 minutes before the train explodes, trying convulsively to figure out the reason for the explosion.

A more true-to-life variation of this idea is when a hero suffers from a memory loss and has to recollect some past events now and then. Here The Notebook and 50 First Dates will serve as good examples. In both these realistic stories the main heroines get amnesia and their beloveds try to revive their love stories in their memories.

To sum it up, Groundhog Day is a romantic comedy with a philosophic underlying message, which makes the movie worth watching over and over again, as if you’ve also got into a time loop.