Groundhog Day

Year: 1993

Grade: A

Country: USA

Director: Ramis

Review

a nice take on romantic comedy. it also shows the full evolution of a character over the course of a long time (just how long is a matter of debate). usually a film takes place over the course of less than a year and in that time you see the protagonist come to some epiphany and they change radically and are then able to finally settle down or be the right match for someone or whatever it is. often this isn’t altogether plausible, in part because of the time constraints. here, though, we see the protagonist (who is rather unlikeable to begin) go through an entire evolution in a believable way. it begins with denial and then he has fun with it by embracing all the sinister things he couldn’t before – he becomes a glutton, a thief, a serial lover, etc. then he becomes depressed and kills himself in several (comical) ways. then he tries to get something a little deeper and works on attaining it by learning the piano and actually becoming a better person. in the end he has evolved enough that the universe kicks him out of the moebius loop and back into the human world.

in a world of films that may be entertaining but unoriginal, it’s nice to see one that is both. bill murray is the perfect actor to play this character. the jerk who we find entertaining in spite of his many flaws.