‘It really changed my life’: Why Groundhog Day is my feel-good movie | Groundhog Day

THere’s a moment in Groundhog Day that really changed my life: the part where he notices that Andie MacDowell has walked into the party dancing to a fast-paced solo, weatherman Phil Connors interrupts the band with a gesture, takes off his shades, and spins right into an emotional rendition of Rhapsody to Rachmaninoff’s Theme by Paganini. Has Bill Murray looked great in a movie, before or since? He has anyone?

To be honest, it took me a while to act on my love for that climatic moment (more on that in a minute) but there’s a lot to love about the typical time-loop drama even before you get to Connors’ redemption arc. It’s clear that Murray will be displaying his full comedic range, as he moves from irascible cynic to hedonistic maniac to enlightened altruist, somehow keeping us on our side throughout the entire problematic journey. Stephen Tobolowsky gives a performance that would steal any other movie as Ned Ryerson (“Ned-nose Ned! Ned the Head!”), and MacDowell has never played a more charming character than Rita, Phil’s endlessly patient producer. But actually, the entire town of Punxsutawney was supposed to get a best supporting actor nod: It’s the place where you can imagine retiring to pancakes every morning at a diner where everyone knows your name. Phil might hate it: I love it more and more every time I watch it.

Groundhog Day is also the first (and still the best) example of a film type that is still incredibly watchable, and can be endlessly reinvented. She didn’t come up with the idea of ​​a character repeating the same day over and over again — Doubled and Redoubled, a short story in which an unlucky employee repeats the same incredible day endlessly until he hates it intensely, was published in the 1940s, while Star Trek: TNG accomplished a temporal causal loop in 1992 — but she perfected the format, establishing the structural rhythms that every subsequent film follows. First comes the confusion and newness: not understanding or believing what is happening, trying the obvious things, and then seeing what you can get away with. Slowly, desperation sets in, as nothing works and the hero resorts to increasingly drastic measures. Ultimately, there is mastery, as our hero learns to effortlessly navigate endlessly recurring events, whether that means dodging an attack helicopter (in Frank Grillo’s ridiculous boss level), cataloging unremarkable moments of everyday beauty (Map of Perfect Small Things), or giving someone the Heimlich maneuver and learning the weaknesses of every person in the city (Murray).

Usually, there’s a reason why things happen: sometimes, the hero has to learn quantum physics or solve their own murder to escape the loop. But Groundhog Day sensibly avoids all of this — despite writing a scene in which he explains that Phil has been cursed by his disgruntled ex-girlfriend, director Harold Ramis and screenwriter Danny Rubin managed to convince studio executives that the episode would be more compelling if it had never been explained, and therefore never explained. Does Phil finally escape because he is freed from the Buddhist cycle of samsara—an endless process of death and rebirth driven by desire, desperation, and worldly urges—or because he has convinced someone to love him? Has he reached the pinnacle of kindness or has he simply accepted his fate? Did God take pity on him or was he just bored? You can make an argument for any of these interpretations, and then choose a different interpretation on your next rewatch.

But there’s another reason I love Groundhog Day, and it’s perhaps best explored through director Tim Minchin’s largely underrated musical remake (which, incidentally, also takes up the film’s brisk treatment of a female character who Connors cheats on in bed, with Nancy played surprisingly poignantly). The show’s biggest buzz is If I Had My Time Again, an overlapping duet between Phil and Rita that contrasts with All the Last Things Desires It can actually do all of the above things He does (“I’ve always dreamed of learning how to dance” / “Some days I go out without pants”), a song that still gives me goosebumps every time I listen to it. Because at some point I watched Groundhog Day and said: Why not? I would never get stuck in this situation, but… He does You have time, in every typical day, to do one or two small things that really improve Phil’s life. I may have never learned to ice sculpt, but I did learn to play the piano (including, yes, how to play boogie woogie). I may not be loved by my entire city, but I can try to be a little nicer. None of us will be able to repeat the same day 10,000 times, but we can all try to be a little better, and make life better for the people around us, every day. Sometimes we’ll mess it up. But, as long as we wake up in the morning, we can always try again.