Member review

The movie Groundhog Day was released in 1993, staring Bill Murray. It is also one of the most memorable movies that “never gets old”, according to Empire. This movie is about a TV weatherman who is sent out on location to report the annual Groundhog Day. Once there he is met with the seemingly eternal loop where this day replays over and over again. On further inspection I found there to be more than this. My personal take on the plot was that the universe was trying to teach Phil a lesson. He had a certain dislike for 2nd February where he was essentially the Scrooge of Groundhog Day. The universe was trying to improve his moral characteristics to make him into a better person.

When I first heard the title ‘Groundhog Day’ no image comes into mind. What is that? What does it mean? I’ve never heard of it before. That was until I turned to google for answers. Apparently, groundhog day is a day in which the Canadians and Americans celebrate groundhogs emerging from their borrows at the end of hibernation. Again, this doesn’t put many images into my head, only the basic plot of 2nd February when the people of America come together and celebrate groundhogs returning from hibernation. However, this plot sounded too basic, so I wondered if there was something else Harold Ramis and Danny Rubin had added to the mix. I was right. The addition of that one day being repeated over and over again definitely raised my expectations for this movie.

I believe the idea of reliving a day over and over again is simple enough to comprehend for the audience, especially as the development of stories and fairytales have given us the knowledge that something must be done to fix this problem. The plot isn’t too complicated so it doesn’t make the film too difficult to follow.

I have to say my favourite scene would’ve been the “I’m a God” scene. This is the scene where Phil is trying to convince his situation to Rita. He does this by comparing himself to God: “I’m a god… I’m not the God. I’m a God, I don’t think.” To which he then he continues the comparison with his current situation, also making the audience question his statement: “Maybe God isn’t omnipotent. Maybe he’s been around so long he knows everything”. I think it’s really clever how Ramis and Rubin combined humour, science fiction, religion, drama and romance within a four minute scene; all of which creating a chain of emotions for the audience (even until the end of the movie). The best part of that scene had to have been when Phil began sharing what he knew about Rita. The scenic non-diegetic music shifted the scene to a more serious tone. The music creates a romantic feel between Phil and Rita as well as a hint of sadness. I couldn’t help but notice the sadness in Phil’s voice, especially when he said “and there’s nothing I can do about it.”. That speech triggers us to really think about his situation. It makes us feel sympathy for this character. He learned how to play the piano, he learned to ice sculpt, he memorised all the lives of everyone in town and the specific timings of events. How long has he been in Groundhog Day?

I would have to give this movie a four star rating. The way it was composed and written was effective in making me quite emotional, especially throughout the ending once we had experienced how Phil developed as a person. However, the reason I deducted one star was because I wasn’t really sure what the message this movie was conveying. I may have told you what I thought it was but as I was watching Groundhog Day I couldn’t figure out what the true meaning was; I thought it was quite hard to see at first.