Groundhog Day (1993) review

Groundhog Day (1993)

Directed by: Harold Ramis

Produced by: Danny Rubin

Screenplay by: Danny Rubin, Harold Ramis

Starring: Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell, Chris Elliott

Well, it’s Groundhog Day…again. I know, real original, reviewing a holiday-themed movie on the holiday in question. Just for the record, Punxsutawney Phil did see his shadow in 2022, so there will be six more weeks of winter…or not, I don’t especially care. I’ve referenced today’s movie before in my review of “Happy Death Day,” where a college girl lives the day of her murder over and over and tries to identify her killer. But did you know that it actually began with vampires? Well, sort of. Reportedly, screenwriter Danny Rubin starting reading the Anne Rice novel “The Vampire Lestat,” and began musing about the kind of life an immortal being would actually have. He eventually combined the idea with a previous story concept to create “Groundhog Day,” directed by Harold Ramis and starring Bill Murray in one of his first more dramatic roles. This isn’t the first “time loop” film, but it is one of the most poignant, funny, and well-aged stories of the 1990s.

Murray plays Phil Connors, an egotistical Pittsburgh weatherman who travels to Punxsutawney with his new producer Rita (Andie MacDowell) and cameraman Larry (Chris Elliott) to cover the annual Groundhog Day festivities. He’s not at all enthusiastic about the job; you can sense how much he wants to roll his eyes during the broadcast. A blizzard—which Phil predicted would miss them—keeps him in Punxsutawney for the night; when he wakes up, he discovers it’s Groundhog Day again, and the day plays out exactly the same as yesterday—meeting the same people, having the same conversations, and watching the same events. It continues on endlessly, as Phil runs through a gambit of thought processes at living the same day without consequence; he first takes advantage of the situation, behaving recklessly and trying to woo various women, including Rita, then becomes depressed at an increasingly meaningless existence, and eventually becoming enlightened into helping others for a change.

There’s a certain art to making your main protagonist a jerk that’s still likeable; very few actors can pull it off convincingly, and Murray is one of the most skilled at doing so. From the first time we see Phil, he’s immediately sarcastic and condescending about the “hicks” of Punxsutawney and having to be a part of their traditions. Yes, his attitude gets out of line, but it’s one we can understand; it’s such a bizarre holiday that, when you really get down to it, doesn’t really make sense. You wait around in freezing temperatures—rain, snow or shine—watch people pull a groundhog out of a hole, and whether or not it sees its shadow determines when spring’s coming. Who dreamed that up? However, choosing such a random, oddball holiday really helps the look of the movie stand out as something unique.

But the movie’s true joy is watching how Phil interacts with the people around him. These phases that he goes through feel like ones any of us could in these circumstances. What would you do if nothing you did mattered one way or another? We see him leading police on a car chase on railroad tracks, stealing money, manipulating relationships, assaulting annoying insurance salesmen, and then waking up the very next day no worse for wear. It leads to a lot of situations that you wouldn’t normally think about. One of my favorites is when Phil and Rita get in an impromptu snowball fight with some kids, and then tumble into a snow bank; it’s a sweet, funny, charming little scene, but then he tries to recreate it, and it comes across as forced and awkward. Their whole dynamic calls to attention just how generally contrived many relationships in romantic comedies actually are; it’s a credit to Murray that you can spot moments when Phil’s being pushy and mocking, and when he’s actually being sincere, sometimes in the same scene. I also appreciate that by the end, he’s not a completely different person. He’s still kind of smarmy and uncouth, but more in a way that he laughs with people instead of at them; he’s basically a better version of himself.

There’s not as much to say about the other characters; Chris Elliott is almost too annoying, but he serves his purpose to the story, while Andie MacDowell finds a nice balance as Rita. It would have been easy to make her too nice or bland, as she initially just seems like a silly sweetheart; but she makes for a pretty solid foil to Phil, having no qualms about calling out his bullshit to his face. However, I think some of the supporting performances are a little off, and the dialogue can get pretty lopsided in what tone it’s going for; for the most part, it’s pretty skilled in its blending of comedy and philosophy, but some of the humor is a little misplaced. In fact, throughout filming, Murray and Ramis, longtime collaborators and friends, repeatedly clashed because of this, among other reasons, so much that the two had a falling out that lasted until shortly before Ramis’s death more than 20 years later.

But with that said, the craft is quite nifty in how it really makes you as a viewer feel trapped; the cinematography is simple, but the editing is especially complemented by the tone and just how it can show something fundamentally gruesome, and then just cut to the next day like nothing happened. The most memorable shots are just the ones where we see the clock beside Phil’s bed tick to 6:00 a.m. again, in one instance done in slow-motion with a dooming, droning sound effect like the sound of prison doors. Yet it goes even further than what’s on the surface; let’s pretend for a minute that you aren’t like Phil, and aren’t a blowhard in need of personal redemption (give yourself credit, you’re better than you think you are). The motif is still relevant, because I think we all can feel like we’re stuck somewhere we don’t want to be, going through the same routine, whether it’s a job or an unhappy relationship or whatever. Phil literally alludes to his dilemma to a couple of drunks, and though they don’t pick up on it, they understand what he’s talking about, and so do we.

“Groundhog Day” is a movie that didn’t need to be anything special, but its themes and story arcs have aged it far beyond that of a typical comedy. The Punxsutawney celebration saw its popularity spike following its release, and it’s inspired many discussions about life, fate, repetition, and just how long specifically Phil is stuck in this loop; some say years, some say decades, and Ramis once theorized based on his own Buddhist lifestyle anywhere between 100 to 10,000 years. I don’t think it matters, as the lack of explanation concerning why or for how long this happens only helps the film in the long run. It helped start a new trend of imputing fantasy elements into mainstream comedies like “Liar Liar,” “What Women Want,” “Bruce Almighty,” and many more. It also set Murray on a different course for his career, as he was still known mostly for being the funny guy; but at the turn of the millennium, he’s ventured more into projects that have a lot of wisdom as well, such as “Lost in Translation”—which earned him his first and still only Oscar nomination—and many Wes Anderson films. So if you ever feel like your life has become a monotonous slog, try to see the bright side; we’re all dealt our own hand in this crazy world, but it’s ultimately up to us to make the most of it.

My rating: 9/10