Very Funny AND Thoughtful

Rating: 10/10 (2 February 2005)

Most modern comedies either aren't really funny, are nothing but a funny movie, or three-quarters of the way through, they switch from comedy to solving a problem. Groundhog Day is funny from start to finish, even though we follow the main character through 34 Groundhog Days of personal discovery and growth. When I showed this movie to my then 10 year old daughter, Jessica, she was horrified by it for many years; she didn't see the comedy, she saw the hell of someone who has, as Sartre's play is named in English, "No Exit." Murray's character's inability to accept that he can not keep the old man alive when it's the old man's day to die is a movie moment that always brings tears to my eyes.
This movie is one of my 50 favorites, and it's a hard list to make.