A great work of popular art

Rating: 10/10 (11 January 2008)

A great work of popular art. It's a simple premise; a man keeps experiencing the same day over and over again until he learns to use the experience to his advantage and, as fate would have it, become a better person into the bargain. It's a morality tale that the writers Harold Ramis, who also directed, and Danny Rubin have fashioned into a sweet-natured and very funny comedy, a Rolls Royce of a vehicle for its star, the great Bill Murray.
And it could so easily have gone wrong. It takes a very special lightness of touch to keep a soufflé like this from deflating. It must move us as well as make us laugh and it must do it without degenerating into the kind of schmaltz that categorizes so many American movies. Personally I think it is one of the great 'American' films, a lovingly recreated picture of small-town, homespun values. I could live Murray's day over and over again with him and never want it to end.