Weatherman and news broadcaster Phil Connors (Bill Murray, from theforgotten Sci-fi classicCity of Ember) is assigned every year to the Groundhog day special in Punxsutawney, where the whole town waits in anticipation for the groundhog to emerge. If the little furry creature sees his shadow, it means that winter will remain for another 6 weeks, whereas a shadowless sighting would usher in early spring.
Phil is a cynical, self-absorbed big shot who is desperate to get the experience over as quickly as possible, so when a storm rolls in and keeps him and his crew snowed in for the night, he’s furious. But things are about to get a whole lot worse when he wakes the next morning to find that it’s groundhog day once again, and that he will have to relive this day over and over again until he changes his ways.
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At first, this appears as a blessing, and Phil, staying true to his selfish and opportunistic nature very quickly begins to take advantage of his newfound re-set each morning, by breaking laws because he knows there will be no consequences the next day, stealing riches and squandering them on flashy cars, and learning trivial snippets of information about different women around the town in order to seduce them the next day. He begins to see himself as a god with power over life and death.
But like all good characters who are given too much power (likeLight Yagami in Death Note) he soon comes unstuck when the object of his true desire, Rita, the young and beautiful producer who has accompanied him to Punxatawney rejects his advances over and over again, no matter what new tricks he tries to woo her with. Sinking into depression, he becomes disillusioned with the reality of being suck in this endless cycle, to the point where he decides to steal the groundhog and drive off a bridge in order to end it all, only to find out that he can’t die, and that he simply wakes up at the same morning anyway. Thetime-loop has interesting origins in film and TV, and is seen at it’s finest here inGroundhog Day.
The real magic of the film begins when Phil starts to use his endlessly repeated days to do good in the world, rather than chasing his own selfish pursuits. He begins to learn new skills, including ice-sculpting, piano playing, and speaking French among a myriad of others. His attention turns to actually getting to know the people he has to live his life around, and starting to make a difference to them both as individuals and as a community.
Phil becomes the hero who rescues children about to fall out of a tree, changes car tyres for elderly women passing through, rescuing the marriage of a young couple who have cold feet on the morning of their wedding. He begins to value life again, for all the possibilities that it presents when you care for and love others more than you love yourself. And despite some challenges along the way, like trying but being unable to resuscitate a homeless man who always dies on Groundhog Day, and coming to terms with the fact that he will never have a future where he can move on with life and start a family and grow old, Phil finds fulfillment and contentedness among the everyday magic that he creates when he helps others.
It turns out that this is the key to un-sticking the Groundhog Day loop and restarting his life. Only when he learns to become a selfless person does Andi finally return his feelings and fall genuinely in love with him, because he is finally his true kind-hearted self, rather than playing a part in order to impress her. He is no longer trying to seduce her, he values and respects her as a person, and as such, he finally earns her love and respect in return, and they wake up in the morning after a night sleeping side by side to find that it’s the day after Groundhog day, and that they can build a life together moving forwards. It’s never clearly stated exactly how long he was stuck reliving the same day for, but many eagle-eyed fans have pieced together clues and snippets, as well as average skill-learning lengths of time, to suggest it may have been upwards of 33 years!
The beauty ofGroundhog Dayis in watching the journey of growth and self-discovery that the protagonist undertakes, how he transforms his curse into a blessing for those around him, and how he finds a love that stands the test of time across all the days that he relives. It has a wonderful lesson about true wealth being not in the things that we want or the materials we own, but in the joy that we take in the simple moments that make us happy. It isthe most heartwarming version of a well-known story, which makes it an unbeatable classic movie that will melt away even the most cynical viewers.
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