Spotlight

Spotlight Date: 24-October-04
Spoiler Rating: High

Groundhog Day (1993)

For years I encountered almost reverential praise for Bill Murray's time-warp comedy "Groundhog Day" without being able to understand it. Granted, I first watched it on TV, which is never a happy (or fair) way to view a film, but I didn't grasp why it stood out from the pack. Maybe because I have seen so many movies since and have honed a razor-sharp talent for discrimination (i.e., I've become finicky and bored with convention), "Groundhog Day" impressed me more favorably the second time around. A lot of its elements are familiar, but they're presented in a clever way; and it shows, most refreshingly, that comedy doesn't have to play dumb.

In fact, the middle part of the movie is rife with imagination. When Murray's character, a cranky weatherman named Phil, is sent to cover the annual prediction of America's most famous rodent, he gets stuck inside a time-loop in which he alone is conscious of reliving the same Groundhog Day over and over and over again. The script (by Danny Rubin and director Harold Ramis) tackles the tricky job of staying fresh while repeating events by taking Phil through a cycle of responses, something psychologists might call the Five Phases of Recurrent Experience if this actually happened with regularity. Thus, we see Phil react with disbelief on the first day of the loop and then quickly succumb to anger. After that he progresses to elation, a detachment from guilt and consequence that motivates him to finagle women into the sack and cruise around town with the cops on his tail. Later, he segues into despair, committing suicide every day and yet waking in the same bed every morning. This finally leads to acceptance, a lengthy period in which he uses his seemingly endless supply of Groundhog Days to improve himself by studying Italian, reading Chekhov, learning how to play the piano, and --- for the first time ever --- getting to know and care about the people around him.

The bit of edge to "Groundhog Day" seasons its predominant mix of small-town caricature and Murray's deadpan humor. (Along with intermittent chuckles, it made me wonder how I would behave in such a situation and whether it would benefit me as well.) And as Hollywood has its undying traditions just like Punxsutawney, PA, the movie includes a romantic angle that is, unsurprisingly, its weakest point. Phil attends the foreshadowing festivities with his cameraman (Chris Elliott) and a new producer named Rita (the wooden Andie MacDowell), who instantly captivates him with her beauty, kind heart, blah, blah, blah. She responds to his cynicism with a wariness that ranges from dismissive jocularity to outright disgust (depending on which of the Five Phases he happens to be in). During his weeks of iteration Phil discovers how to grow close to her, and his success in this quarter holds the key to Fate's master plan, signaling the appropriate degree of redemption that will trigger his release. When that moment comes, Phil unexpectedly welcomes it in more ways than one, as an exit from a winter of discontent and an entrance to the springtime of life.

Copyright © 2004 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.