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Classic Movie Review: 'Groundhog Day'

Is 'Groundhog Day' a classic or not?

By Sean PatrickPublished 6 years ago 7 min read
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Something keeps nagging at me about Groundhog Day, this week’s classic on the Everyone is a Critic Movie Podcast. I like the movie but something about Groundhog Day seems to bring out my inner pedant. Whether it’s the questionable timeline, the questionable motivation for those many timelines or something in the manner of Bill Murray’s slightly awkward performance, I can’t seem to embrace the film as fully as so many others have.

Groundhog Day stars Bill Murray as Phil Connors, a narcissistic Pittsburgh weather man who is tasked with traveling to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania for that yearly tradition of Groundhog Day. Punxsutawney has become famous for its Groundhog Festival at which the titular rodent, known around town as Phil, is pulled from his fake abode to announce whether he sees his shadow. The notion is that if the groundhog can see his shadow there will be six more weeks of winter.

Phil Connors can’t stand this assignment. He hates small towns nearly as much as he secretly hates himself. Phil is, to say the least, not a people person. He’s been to Punxsetawney for years for this assignment but has made no connections in town and barely stays long enough for the groundhog to finish his proclamation before hitting the road back to the big city. This year however, will be different, very, very different.

For reasons that are never specified, Phil finds himself unable to leave Punxsutawney due to a snowstorm that he had predicted would not hit. Forced to spend another night, Phil finds himself waking up to find that it’s Groundhog Day all over again. Everything Phil experienced the day before is happening again in the exact same way. Phil is naturally quite disturbed but eventually settles on a nightmare that will end with another good night’s sleep. When the day repeats a third time, Phil is forced to accept that he’s stuck and how to deal with such bizarre circumstances.

Groundhog Day, much like movies such as Indecent Proposal or Fatal Attraction, is what I like to call “What would you do” movie. This type of movie exists almost solely to entice the audience to ask themselves what they would do in the same circumstance as the main character. It’s a clever bit of audience engagement but once the audience comes to their personal conclusion what are you left with? In the case of Groundhog Day it comes down to the gags and the romance.

Some will argue that there is much more to Groundhog Day than the central question, the gags or the iffy romantic chemistry between Bill Murray and Andie McDowell. I’m not sure I buy it though. One of the main things that has turned this OK comedy into a growing cult classic is how the film portrays existential angst. The film invites many questions regarding why Phil is stuck in this loop and this unanswered question has caused some to bestow meanings upon the movie that I am just not sure were intended by the filmmakers.

Groundhog Day theory is quite the YouTube rabbit hole. There are dozens of video reviews alone that attempt to pull apart the movie on a film criticism level. Then there is the area of the web dedicated to Groundhog Day theory where people as varied as a novice to the existentialist thinker and philosopher Eckhart Tolle debate the meaning of the film and its relationship to existential theory. Then there is an equally big rabbit hole dedicated to debunking the meaning of Groundhog Day, where I seem to find myself.

Some remove the philosophical from the debate and move into religious theory where the most popular theory about the film resides, Purgatory. Everyone from critics to scholars have posted videos discussing Groundhog Day as a man’s journey through purgatory, that place that is not heaven or hell but an unending place of suffering. This theory posits the death of Phil Connors and him reliving the same day as his penance before it is decided whether he can go to heaven or hell.

There is even a medical, psychological take on Groundhog Day. This one has Groundhog Day as a metaphor for psycho-analysis. This theory posits that psycho-therapy is about breaking day to day patterns that hold us back from realizing our problems and overcoming the obstacles of our life through reliving past traumas. This theory isn’t bad, it’s even one that director Harold Ramis liked the most though, more to my debunking notion, Ramis claims not have inserted any purposeful meaning to the film.

The question then becomes, does Groundhog Day have a deeper meaning if the filmmakers did not intend for a deeper reading of the movie? Do you believe that the intent of the filmmakers matters more or less than the reaction of the viewer? For me, the specific intent matters and when Ramis says that he was just making a comedy about a guy stuck in the same day for very long time, my notion is to then consider the film as such.

In considering Groundhog Day without the supposed deeper meanings or metaphors, we’re left to consider the movie alone and in doing so, the flaws come to the fore. Bill Murray, for all his legendary comic timing, is not a particularly relatable or believable romantic leading man. Murray’s chemistry with co-star Andie McDowell is rather weak with McDowell seemingly on a different plane of existence from Murray’s comic, ironic indifference.

Where McDowell is earnest and romantic, Murray seems like a put on at all times. When he attempts his seduction of McDowell’s character it feels forced rather than charming and wildly creepy on top of that. Murray is not a natural romantic whereas McDowell is entirely too romantic with little to none of the edge of Murray’s Phil. These two people don’t seem to fit together and yet we are stuck with them as the romantic driving force of Phil’s redemption from scoundrel to human being.

The final moments of the movie, after Phil has seemingly ended his purgatory, come off false. When Phil says he loves McDowell and wants them to move and live in Punxsutawney, Murray delivers the line not with a romantic aplomb but with the dread of a man who’s resigning himself to a new existence. There is an almost lobotomized air to Phil as he steps from his bed & breakfast prison into the first new day he’s seen in a very long time and it hints at something sinister that might be more interesting if this weren’t a mainstream comedy that is doomed to a no questions asked happy ending.

The one aspect of Groundhog Day that does work are the gags. There are some really great gags in Groundhog Day. My favorite runner is undoubtedly the reappearances of Stephen Tobolowsky’s scene stealing Ned Ryerson. Ned is an insurance agent and former high school classmate of Phil. Ned is a raging ignoramus with an obnoxious, glad-handing manner and Tobolowsky invests him with endless comic invention. Everything about Ned gets a laugh, especially Tobolowsky’s hammy attempts to keep his face on camera.

Then there is Phil’s series of suicide attempts. Ramis and Murray go very dark for these scenes and the black humor of Phil’s repeated deaths is a whole lot of bleak fun. Arguably, Phil’s best death comes first when he snaps, kidnaps the Groundhog Phil, and drives a truck off a cliff. Murray hamming it up with the Groundhog while being chased by cops and his TV station pals, is a real treat of dark humor and shock value.

I could name a dozen more fun gags in Groundhog Day that I admire but I think you get the point. Groundhog Day is quite a good comedy from the perspective of the gags. Ramis and Murray seem most invested in the jokes and that makes sense as they come from a comic background. That said, the gags are the only real standout from Groundhog Day and for that it fails to stick the landing as a great movie. The romance doesn’t work and drags the film to a halt. Murray can’t begin to feign interest in earnest romantic stuff and it sinks an entire subplot that is essential to the film.

Yes, I am willing to admit that the theories attached to Groundhog Day by some viewers are intriguing. They would be more intriguing if anyone making the movie had actually intended to make something more than a good comedy. As it is, the theories are mostly fan-service and are rather tangential to the film that inspired them. As it is, Groundhog Day is merely a good comedy and little more. It’s certainly not a landmark of cinema or of existential thought.

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About the Creator

Sean Patrick

Hello, my name is Sean Patrick He/Him, and I am a film critic and podcast host for the I Hate Critics Movie Review Podcast I am a voting member of the Critics Choice Association, the group behind the annual Critics Choice Awards.

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