I got you babe!

Rating: 8/10 (15 August 2014)

Groundhog Day is, first and foremost, a very funny film. Bill Murray plays TV weatherman Phil Connors, an egotistical cynic full of frustrated ambition who, much to his annoyance, finds himself having to broadcast from small-town Punxsutawney PA on the annual "Groundhog Day" festival. This is the last thing a big star weatherman like Connors wants to be doing, but in spite of his best efforts to get it over before the incoming storm front, things don't really work out as planned: the big-city sophisticate is forced to live out the same day again and again in a place he really doesn't want to be, Small Town USA, full of hicks from the sticks.
The central mystery of the repeating day is never explained. We don't have time to ponder this as the well-paced script moves briskly along, giving Murray the perfect stage to display his deadpan comic talents. The supporting cast is excellent, particularly Andie MacDowell and Chris Elliot as Larry the cameraman. Often, the humour gives way to pathos and some deeply touching (if not to say disturbing) reflections on life, as the perceptive and subtle love story at the heart of the film reveals itself.
No matter how many times you see Groundhog Day (it frequently pops up in TV schedules and believe me, you will watch it a lot), you still laugh at the old jokes, notice new jokes that you previously missed, find Andie MacDowell increasingly attractive, Bill Murray funnier and funnier. As time goes by, with each repeated viewing, it is acquiring the mythic charm of something like "It's a Wonderful Life", a movie with which it shares some curious thematic parallels. I get the feeling that it really wasn't planned that way, that the project started out as quite an 'ordinary', low budget vehicle for Bill Murray, but somehow had depth and greatness thrust upon it. Again, very much like the story of "It's a Wonderful Life".
And afterwards that repeating day starts to bother you again. What does it mean? Something about reincarnation? A blueprint for raised consciousness? A biting satire on modern life? Perhaps, as Phil Connors, in his deep, serious mode might say, you realise we are all trapped in our own little versions of Groundhog Day, and if things don't seem to get much better, nor do we get much happier, maybe with a bit of luck, we get a little wiser.