An iconic masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (23 July 2019)

I'm pretty sure everyone in America has seen Groundhog Day, and that most of America watches it every year on the holiday itself. I'm included in the latter and have seen the movie over twenty times with my family. We eat Angel food cake, stuffing it in our mouths when Bill Murray does onscreen, and we drink sweet vermouth on the rocks with a twist. Even as kids, we drank bitters to pretend we could fit in with Andie MacDowell. We even have a relative who tried to calculate just how many Groundhog Days Bill lived through! Our family is hardly unique, and I'm sure millions of others enjoy the same ritual every February 2nd.
Bill Murray will forever be immortalized in American cinema for his role as an unlikable, sarcastic, jaded weatherman assigned to the small town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania with his socially awkward cameraman, Chris Elliot, and his new, optimistic producer, Andie MacDowell, to cover the Groundhog Day festivities. I love this movie, but I would love it even more had Michael Keaton accepted the role, because in scenes where the character is supposed to show growth and new kindness, Bill's not particularly convincing. He is extremely convincing during most of the movie, when he's irritable, rude, and condescending. And, since this movie is a fantasy about living the same day over and over again with no consequences, it's cathartic for the audience to watch Bill's socially inacceptable behavior. How many times have we longed to tell off an irritating salesman? Bill gets to punch Stephen Tobolowsky in the face for us!
There's so much to love about this movie, full of contrasts and imagination. Sweet Andie MacDowell is contrasted by Marita Geraghty's silliness. Everyone in the town takes themselves so seriously, providing the perfect surreal surrounding for Bill Murray's distaste. On the drive over, he insults the entire town, calling the residents "hicks" and "morons", setting the stage for a truly moving transformation. In Harold Ramis's iconic, inventive classic, audiences get to reappreciate small town charm, shrug off years of indifference and assumptions, learn to believe in love, and have faith in the belief that anyone can change. No matter how awful someone is, given several hundred second chances, he can change. And, in the ultimate lesson of optimism, even a simple bad day can turn into a lifechanging good one.