Groundhog Day
After literally reinventing and then defining movie comedy as we know it in the 80s with his Immortal Classics Caddyshack and Vacation, the late, great Harold Ramis as a director then began kind of a slow decline, dropping the bar on the quality of his work for a series of obviously dumb comedies well through the 90s. But there was one exception here in 1993, a film that kind of initially slipped through the cracks and was lumped in with the other lame entries of his during this era, but within about 10 years, managed to gain an almost intense appreciation amongst comedy fans to the point where it was rechristened among other things, one of the best films of the 90s, one of the best comedies of all time, and for many the single best film of Ramisâ career, which it certainly is not compared to his early work, even if the overall quality of the film itself is undeniable. What is even more interesting is the following that it gained amongst many religious groups of many different varieties across the board from Christians to Wiccans for its near metaphysical themes of almost being trapped in a purgatory state where the ONLY way out it appears is through intense self improvement. It also managed to give the legendary Bill Murray possibly THE best role of his career, allowing him to utilize his edgy comic persona while also bringing a sense of introspection as his character attempts to come to ultimate terms with his predicament. The premise is really not altogether new, having been done before in terms of sci fi / fantasy / Twilight Zone type situations, but what separates this from the rest is that no real, formal EXPLANATION is ever given at any time for just exactly WHY this is happening, with no one to come out and explain directly to the Murray character what exactly his âmissionâ is and what it is that must be done by him to escape his situation, thus leaving as the only possible culprit none other than God Himself (although there is a very minor character of a black bartender who at times SEEMS to indicate that he knows what is going on and may in fact be keeping track of Murrayâs progress, but alas, never actually approaches him to reveal himself as such), thus making the beauty of the whole affair the idea that Murray must truly figure out for himself what he must do even as he nearly goes crazy while doing so, but at least he has plenty of time given to pull himself together, with any and all elimination of the so called âsci fi fantasy paranoiaâ element contributing greatly towards working the story into the more humanistic side of things. The film stars Murray as Phil Connors, a Pittsburgh area weatherman who like many real life types of his ilk, does a pseudo comedy routine during his given airtime to make himself seem more likable than he really is, but in actuality heâs just a smarmy, pompous, egotistical asshole of the first order who is once again given one of his least favorite assignments, to do a remote broadcast from the small town of Punxsutawney, PA, along with his cute, super friendly new producer (Andie McDowell) and village idiot cameraman (Chris Elliot, whose once super hot âcultâ 90s comedy star rep eventually fell to the wayside forcing him to settle for character acting roles and TV guest shots), for their annual tradition of celebrating Groundhog Day, which he goes through with doing while using an extra touch of acerbic bite, and then after being snowed in by a major blizzard, elects to spend one more night in the humble burg. Problem is, he wakes up the next morning to discover that he is now reliving the same day again, in the same town, and before you know it he is now trapped in an apparent âtime loopâ where he wakes up every morning at 6AM to the same song on the radio, the same fat guy greeting him when he walks out his door, the same banter with the little old lady who runs the bed and breakfast that he stays at, and the same old basic routine that he had first gone through now ad nauseum day after day. The fascinating thing about Ramisâ direction is in how he paces and edits the whole thing, making direct replays of certain scenes to comic effect a major part of the mix and also in the evolution of Murrayâs character over the course of his âimprisonmentâ (originally estimated by Ramis to have been about 10 years minimum, which he later readjusted to being somewhere in the range of 30 to 40 years instead), during which time he first goes through a period of disbelief, then starts to use his âpowersâ for the purpose of picking up on and having one night stands (naturally) with hot chicks (including a real cutie played by Marita Geraghty), followed by a LONG period of acute depression during which he makes several (successful) suicide attempts, only to still wake up the next morning on February 2 after having been declared dead the day before, giving him the very intense impression of actually being a deity in his own right, before deciding that the ONLY thing thatâs been getting him through these endless days and nights is the charmingly sweet McDowell character, making him realize that his only possible way out is not only to get to know her as well as possible, but also literally every person in the town itself, and as said Ramis economically conveys the possibility that Murray not only spent days, weeks, and months learning certain skills like ice sculpting and piano playing, but probably spent at least a day each getting to know each and every one of these small town people by name and learning about their likes, dislikes, and certain needs, leading to each day (after doing the report) having him run certain âerrandsâ to help everybody at different points of the day almost like a precognitive superhero, all wonderfully put forward by Ramis who never slows the film down too much and deftly achieves this overall effect especially towards the end by bringing out several characters and references to things that Murray apparently did (off camera) that were never shown or depicted at any time prior. Essentially what we have here is the forced attainment of perfection (or something close to it) in order to achieve enlightenment, or possibly even getting just a small taste of godhood because as Murray so eloquently states, God has been around so long that thereâs just no way that He couldnât know everything, a pretty heady concept by any cinematic standards that is played off beautifully by Murray especially in his interactions with McDowell (whereas Elliot just kind of plays the dipshit that nobody cares about, even Murray himself at the end of the film). The film suffers a bit from some of the supporting players overstaying their welcome and / or playing things just a little bit too broadly, although Stephen Tobolowsky, who at first glance seems to be the most likely offender as the most overbearing insurance salesman of all time, actually manages to straddle a fine line between being annoying and funny with his Ned Ryerson (even more amazing is how Tobolowsky himself, a longtime character actor with a VERY extensive resume, actually was able to make this his best remembered role). But such elements as Murray doing one of his suicides with a swan dive off a high roof (which comes off as more poetic than anything) or the bittersweet notion that his continued attempts to try and save an old homeless man (practically spoiling him with hot meals and warm blankets) only to still see him die continuously because âit was just his dayâ imbues the story with a depth that was extremely rare in comedies of this decade (and still is today) which leads to the ironic conclusion that in order for Murray to âmake it outâ he must somehow have one perfect day where he manages to make an individual positive impact on nearly every person in the town which leads to McDowell not only falling in love with him, but actually managing to be the one that âreleasesâ him with a very specific act towards the end of the movie (try to spot it). Overall, a great comedy that has been boosted towards unrealistic appraisals by some who have seen it, but also one that contains a ton of emotion and achieves the same mean feat that had been accomplished by Scrooged only a few years before (just done better here) by actually succeeding in giving Bill Murray a real heartâŚ
9/10