Filmic Pulp

This movie is a Billy Murray vehicle that centers around his character, Phil Connors, who goes to Punxatawney, Illinois to cover the Groundhog day festival, and he wants to immediately get home afterwards.

Instead, what happens is that he, for some inexplicable reason–probably just a stretch and some magical realism–is going to be reliving this day of madness. According to this movie’s IMDB page, Phil ends up living this same for 10 years. That sucks. Especially since that means that he had to do the same report on the same groundhog for 3,652 days (+2 for leap years). 3,652 of the same actions, the same bed, the same song on the radio. And nobody else notices the loop.

As a result, he goes through phases of denial and then anger and then, finally resolve–as if he’s dead. He begins to learn everyone’s name in the diner, begins to learn piano, begins reading French poetry. He can remember the days before, but everyone else thinks it’s the same February 2nd. And the worst part is that, because of the blizzard, he can’t leave the little podunk town.

This movie doesn’t have much to say in the way of philosophy, but it definitely is an interesting concept–doing anything you want. He steals money, drives off a cliff, jumps off a building, drops a toaster in the bathtub, all to no avail. Phil would rather be dead than in Punxatawney. And what’s interesting about the aspect that he’s spent over 3,600 days in the town, it may mean that each and every cut is from a different day. This movie allows you to laugh a lot at all the crazy antics as Phil runs into Ned Ryerson from high school and steps in a puddle and flirts with his new producer who, over the time, has fallen in love.

I used to think that, it would be only if he the day within the perfect course of actions, he could be freed, but now I’m not so sure. It might have been some kind of punishment from God. Who knows. What I do know, though, is that this movie offers many jokes and many laughs and many heartwarming moments. Is it high art? No, it’s probably somewhere in the middle, but it’s a great movie to snuggle up with someone and watch.