Starring: Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell
Every year, on February the 2nd, we watch Harold Ramis’ critically acclaimed Groundhog Day. It’s one of the funniest, most amazing films I’ve ever watched─one of the few ones that you can watch annually and never get bored of!
It tells the story of Phil Connors, a Scrooge-like American reporter and weatherman who’s journeyed to a Pennsylvanian town to commentate on Groundhog Day. Phil is arrogant and cynical and clearly cares little for the reporters he’s working with. Once Groundhog Day has finished, he wakes up again─and finds that it’s still Groundhog Day. Over the course of the film, he has to live the same day over and over again, while the people surrounding him don’t understand what he’s going through. Over the next few weeks (although, of course, every day is the same), Phil falls in love with a reporter he’s working with called Rita. Rita is the exact opposite of Phil: she’s warm, kind and friendly, and Phil uses this extra time on his hands to learn everything about her. He earns more of her respect and admiration with every passing day, and he finds that he’s beginning to really care for her, not just in the way of his meaningless flirting when they first met.
While trapped in the same Groundhog Day, Phil’s character completely changes. He encounters the same people every day (obviously; it’s February the 2nd over and over!), and every time he meets them his attitude towards them changes. On the first Groundhog Day, when he meets a homeless man on the street, he pretends that he doesn’t have any money and ignores him. Near the middle of the Groundhog Days, he takes the man to a cafe and buys him soup and wraps him up warm, but finds that he dies at the end of the day. By the end of the film, he’s doing all he can to prevent the old man from dying like he’s foreseen.
Meanwhile, Phil makes other good use of his time. After trying unsuccessfully to kill himself about twenty times, he learns how to play the piano and to ice-sculpt. Ultimately, though, this is a film about redemption, and how Phil changes from the pessimistic reporter we once knew to a more genuine and loving version of himself. The continually recurring days end when he and Rita truly fall in love with one another, and Phil finally lives to see the third of February.
Bill Murray was certainly the best actor for this role. What could have become a soppy, changed-man kind of film just wasn’t because of his amazing acting. Even when he was the old Phil, being rude and arrogant, we liked his character and laughed at whatever he said. I’d give this film 5 out of 5 stars every time I watch it, hands down!
