The film Groundhog Day is remembered not only as a good holiday movie, but a great movie in general.

The film was released 1993 and was directed by the late Harold Ramis (AKA Egon from Ghostbusters) and starred Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell, and Chris Elliot.

The film is about a Pittsburgh weather man named Phil Connors (Played by Bill Murray) being sent over to cover the Groundhog Day celebration in a small town named Punxsutawney. Going along with him are his producer Rita (Andie MacDowell) and his cameraman Larry (Chris Elliot).

After a long day of work and being miserable in the small town, he falls asleep. When wakes up the next day he realizes that the day is not the next day but the same day repeating itself over and over again.

Bill Murray really helps carry the film. Throughout the entire picture, it’s almost entirely focused on him and how he changes over the course of the story. 

At the beginning of the story Phil is a real jerk, belittling others, acting rude, and being sarcastic with everyone. Even when he realises he’s in a time loop, at first he uses it for his own personal gain, doing whatever he wants with no consequences.

But as the story unfolds Phil becomes less and less self obsessed, and actually uses his knowledge of what’s going to happen to actually people in the town. And similar to how he sold the audience on how big of a jerk he is, Murray sells the heel turn and starts to make the audience really like him. 

He also does well selling how the mental toll living the same day over and over again would do to someone. According to Harold Ramis, by the end of the film, Phil had relived the same day for around 10 years.

But whether he’s being a jerk or suffering mental anguish, Bill Murray is still a laugh riot in the film, whether he’s ad libbing or simply selling the joke written in the script.

It helps that Murray was really a trooper during filming. Not only was he going through a divorce, he learned how to play piano film despite not being able to read sheet music, and during one scene the groundhog bit him and seriously injured his finger, causing the filming to stop for a whole day while Murray was getting rabies shots.

It isn’t just Murray that makes the film great. The writing is spectacular – it makes the audience  laugh, cry, and cheer. It makes them feel so many emotions without it feeling jarring. 

An example of that is when Phil notices an old man out on the street collapsing. When he takes him to the hospital he passes away, with the nurse explaining that it was just his time, Phil replies with “Not today.” The audience is shown him trying to get the old man in a better condition by trying to feed him a hot and balanced meal, only for him to pass away anyway.

The writing also avoids the common pitfall of showing Phil in a time loop in a montage too often. The film instead decides to show this by his actions, like having things prepared beforehand when on a date Rita, or acting the exact way he needs to act in a situation. It shows the audience that he’s been through this situation before without spelling it out. 

The film also does really well to make the audience care and understand the townspeople of Punxsutawney, Penn. It provides such unforgettable characters like Ned Ryerson (Stephen Tobolowsky), the nice yet over-talkative life insurance agent, or Buster Green (played by Bill Murray’s older brother, Brian-Doyal Murray) the principle official of the groundhog ceremony, who really cares about the groundhog, to an almost uncomfortable level.

The message the film brings is also a very hopeful one, live everyday the best you can and that you have to go with the flow sometimes. 

A good example of this message in action is when Phil is on a date with Rita they slip on the ice and share a magical moment. But when the date ends up not going well and Phil restarts the day, he tries to recreate the moment and instead of it being magical, it comes off as creepy.

If the film has any flaws, they’d be minor.

One criticism one might have for the film is that it does its job of making the protagonist unlikeable, too well. Even if he later becomes a better person, Phil still abused his personal power for personal gain with zero consequences.

Another complaint, also admittedly minor, is that it’s a bit confusing how the time loop works. The film implies that the day restarted if it reached 6 A.M. or if Phil died, but during a montage of killing himself over and over, the audience is shown Rita and Larry confirming that it’s him at the morgue. Which means the loop hadn’t restarted yet.

Groundhog is one of those films that’s a classic for a good reason. I give it a thumbs up, Patrick says check it out.

Patrick soon will be starring in Classhog Day, about a student stuck in the same class, over and over and over again.