This Movie Is Funny Over and Over Again

Rating: 8/10 (3 February 2009)

When you ask someone to think of a Bill Murray movie, Groundhog Day is usually the answer they give. The other half will say Ghostbusters. This is the kind of a role that one is born to play. Murray plays the character of Phil Conners and does it better than a real Phil Conners would have. His comedic talents are highly honed in this performance and he is working near the top of his game. It is so important to be inside a Phil Conner's head in this movie due to the repetitive nature of the movie. Murray is consistent, funny and just melds with the story line.
The story line is pretty basic. Phil Conners is a weatherman on assignment to cover Groundhog Day. He doesn't seem to be a nice man nor does he like his job very much. He mis-predicts the weather and end up getting stuck in Puncsutawney, PA where an annual Groundhog Day event is held putting the whole town on hold. Upon awakening the next morning in Puncsutawney the following day he discovers that it is Groundhog Day all over again. There is a great scene when Murray dresses as a cowboy with a date that is classic; and the way he is able to handle the Brink's guards is also very humorous.
Also fun to watch in the movie is the talented Andie MacDowell whose character of Rita is completely unaware that it is the same day for Phil. She tries to understand. Less understanding is Phil's cameraman played by David Letterman funny man Chris Elliot who gives his usual spot on dufus performance. The man who will always be synonymous with the film is Stephen Tobolowsky who plays the knee-slapping funny Ned Ryerson. The scenes, few as they are, with Bill Murray are comedy at its finest and also very Bill Murray.
Written by Danny Rubin and directed by Harold Ramis (Murray's co-star in Ghostbusters), this film was almost an experiment to see if Hollywood would let them make a movie in which the characters relive the same day over and over again. There have even been analysis papers written about time travel and how Phill Conners reacts in his environment so as to allow the same actions to take place again the next day. The film really found a cult like following when the replay rights were purchased by Turner Broadcasting and the movie received so much repeat airplay on TBS that some viewers thought they were in the actual movie. Ramis is to be commended for keeping all the scenes and continuity straight even with so many Hollywood tricks he could have chosen to use. This movie has turned out to be an important film of the 1990s. 8/10*
* The poster for the film is a little too cutesy and I never thought of this film as cutesy or talking down to the audience. Of course what does it is the addition of MacDowell on the poster. It must have been in her contract.