GROUNDHOG DAY
A film review by Jimmy A. Miller
Copyright 1993 Jimmy A. Miller
Starring Bill Murray
Andie Macdowell
Chris Elliot
Director Harold Ramis
Basic premise: Murray is a weatherman who is a less-than-wonderful human being. He, Macdowell and Elliot travel to Punxatawney, PA, for the annual Groundhog Day celebration. They are unable to leave because of a blizzard, and Murray awakes the next morning only to discover that it's *not* the next morning, but Groundhog Day all over again, with the people around him going through almost the exact same motions they went through before, seemingly unaware of what has happened to him.
As Phil continues to relive Groundhog Day, he learns to use his foreknowledge to his own advantage, allowing him to seduce women, rob banks, and generally have a good time, without having to worry about the consequences of his actions. Gradually this palls on Phil, and he begins working on Andie Macdowell's Rita. Rita is most of the things Phil is not: gentle, kind, and still with playful outlook on life. Phil begins a painstaking effort to seduce her, but fails.
At this point Phil begins to despair and attempt to kill himself, only to awaken after each attempt at 6:00 AM, February 2, to the strains of "I Got You Babe." Here the film slows down for a moment to really let us begin to feel Phil's plight, and Murray does an amazing job as a man who begins to wonder the point of it all, and then seeks to use his bizarre opportunity to become a better person.
This is a wonderful charmer of a movie. It is not Bill Murray comedy in the tradition of STRIPES or GHOSTBUSTERS, despite its decidedly off-kilter premise. Murray's Phil is a variation on the typical character we have come to associate with him, the wisecracker who seems to know just a bit more than everyone else, but this time he's a wisecracker gone sour, though not so over the top evil as we saw him in SCROOGED. At first his irritability seems a bit forced, but this passes soon enough, and Murray delivers wonderfully.
MacDowell does fine as Rita, making a believable character out of her even though we only get to see parts of the whole person. She creates the gentle soul both we and Murray somehow come to realize holds the key to his escape.
I did think Chris Elliot was somewhat wasted as the cameraman. He just didn't have much to do, and I think almost anyone could have played the part. But this is a minor quibble. All the supporting cast was fun, the nerdy insurance salesman in particular.
But this movie belongs to Murray, who is able to really utilize his comic skills and keep things from becoming sappy. The relationship between he and Macdowell is credible, and Murray's slow transformation from self-centered jerk is well done.
The direction and pacing are excellent. Given the premise, there is a tremendous danger of over-repetition, but this is avoided. We see only enough to reset the scene, and it is exploited for its comic and dramatic purposes brilliantly. Minor characters move in and out of the action in a believable fashion, helping maintain the sense that we're in a small town, enhancing the familiarity Phil must feel as he moves about a place where he eventually knows *to the minute* when things are going to happen.
GROUNDHOG DAY is a romantic comedy with, I think, something to say about people as well. It is intelligent, charming, and well worth the full price. Go see it, again and again and again.
semper fi,
Jammer Jim Miller
.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews