Uplifting and truly unique

Rating: 10/10 (24 May 2007)

There are few films in which you can watch and genuinely feel uplifted and can make you feel like every day is important...this is one of them. A truly special film. It follows Phil Conners (Bill Murray) a TV weatherman man who pretty much hates his life, and the world around him- he's cold, and drips sarcasm and dry humour and no one really knows him. But its not one of those yawn inducing romance movies, where the bad man turns good because of love instantly- this is a much smarter movie, the premise is unique as Phil aims to get his report over with, in Punxatawney to cover the groundhog day, as quickly as possible and get out. He can't stand the town, and finds the whole day utterly pointless. Thus the groundhog day commences at 6am and his radio alarm awakes him to two radio presenters "Its groundhog day..." after the quirky ceremony he tries to get out of town but his own weather report lets him down as the storm forces him to stay another day. What he doesn't realise is this is a day he may have to re-live for the rest of his life. He awakes to exactly the same day and events as the previous one- and continues to do so. From this point on Phil goes through many stages: At first he treats the repeated days with contempt; then he continues his personality of dry ego-centric and impersonal, by using it to his advantage- by picking up women rather impressively i might add, living it with reckless abandon with the realisation there are no consequences stealing,arrested; then the next stage was that of being suicidal- as he commits suicide every day as this repeated day was a curse; however as the movie develops so too does his interest in the sweet good natured Rita Andie McDowell character, whom he woos and romances and he uses each day to develop his knowledge of her. He gets a lot of slaps in the face as he attempts to use it to bed her in one go; but this soon gives him a reason to keep going, and he over time develops an excitement in his life and re-living it as he starts doing good in the community helping people and sculpturing and playing and instrument and his nature changes to one of good... and he finally gets groundhog day right- it all comes together for him and he gets his girl, and he feels genuinely uplifted as he awakes the next day with Rita beside him and he finally made it to the next day.
Themes wise, there is a distinct religious overtone- almost Buddhist in its philosophy.The conclusion makes the viewer realise that every day should be cherished, by living one through the eyes of a man we can all relate too. What would you do with having to relive the same day over and over? in many ways we'd probably all go through the stages that Bill Murray does. Personally i can relate to the metaphorical idea that you live the same day in the same town when nothing really matters, this movie takes that in a literal sense which is unique- and finds an uplifting way to change Phil Conners character. In terms of comedy, this is undoubtedly in my opinion Bill Murray's finest achievement he is a wonderfully skilled comedic actor but he is given a script he can run riot with as he makes the character his own in his fantastic Murray way. His facial expressions, his dry humour-- some of the moments in this movie are just fantastic, it makes you laugh out loud, but it also makes you feel heart-warmed and carries a strong message. Harold Ramis does a fantastic job of directing in this movie also...all in all i feel this could possibly be one of the underrated gems of all time.