human transformation so brilliantly and touchingly portrayed

Rating: 10/10 (12 October 2005)

I usually find a comment which sums up my thinking exactly. Here's the one I found this time:
"The most underrated movie ever made?, 22 October 1998 Author: Scoopy from Budapest When people assemble their lists of great film comedies, this never appears on the list. It should. It has absolutely everything a great comedy should have.
"First, it's funny. Bill Murray is the master of comic insincerity and he plays it to the hilt in this movie. He is a weatherman who is to Ground Hog Day as Ebenezer Scrooge is to Christmas. Fate gets fed up with his attitude and forces him to relive that day until he gets it right.
"Second, it's deep. He doesn't get it right the first time, or perhaps for years. He does what any human would do in the situation. Early on, he uses his knowledge of that day to play God. Then, he uses it to have fun and get women. Then, he is filled with despair and tries to end it with his own death. Then, after trying every crass and immature thing he can think of, he finally realizes that he can actually enjoy his fate if he is reliving a great day, so he makes it so. He makes himself a better person, but the transformation happens only after many missteps ... exactly what would happen to anybody really caught in the situation.
"How many comedies do you know in which the lead character quotes Chekhov and recites French poetry? (or plays Rachmaninoff at the piano: my comment) Both to good effect (One sincere and touching, the other insincere beyond my ability to describe.) "Murray is terrific, as is Andie MacDowell. The supporting players are all spot-on. It's just a terrific comedy. It should have won a whole bunch of awards. Why it did not is a mystery."
Besides Scoopy's apt reference to Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" we mustn't forget the Flying Dutchman legend as well: a sailor's curse keeps him sailing the ocean forever until he finds a woman on land who can redeem him from his curse with her love. Just like in this incredibly wonderful film: great, unique, undervalued; a treasure, a gem of a portrayal of the transformations of the human heart in which seemingly all-knowing triumphant domination and sexual success are followed by frustration and despair and finally redemption through love: still a great moral fable brought up to date for our time.