Groundhog Day (1993)

This movie is, for me, one of three owned by Bill Murray (the other two being Ghostbusters (1984) and Lost In Translation (2003)). In any of those movies, by projecting a great deal of sarcasm and/or cynicism onto the characters he portrays, making them people you love to hate, he effortlessly manages to steal every single scene he appears in. Too bad that, in this one, some of his supporting cast (I'm looking at you, Andie MacDowell) is not nearly as good...

Here Bill Murray is Phil, an egocentric weather man going for the fourth consecutive year to the small town of Punxsutawney for Groundhog Day, something he deeply despises. There, due to a cosmic prank, he sees himself reliving that day over and over again, with only him being aware of the fact. In other words, his figuratively not having a tomorrow as a human being had become a literal curse. At first he's desperate, naturally; after a while, he starts to enjoy being able to act without thinking about the consequences of his acts (which is also quite natural). He then starts to pay more attention to his producer Rita (Andie MacDowell) as the days repeatedly pass by, falling in love with her, courting her and holding her in his arms... just to go back to square one when the sun rises, which breaks him and makes him attempt suicide in several ways. At long last, he starts to use his time to improve himself, which, in turn, makes him start to care about other people. His reward: being able to enjoy a tomorrow.

Phil (Bill Murray)

To watch Bill Murray's Phil evolve from a cynical bastard into the town good doer, going through several stages of dealing with his new situation, is really fun to watch. I love particularly the contrast between the scenes where he is building a snowman with Rita. At first, he's very romantic, saying that he hopes to build a snowman with his kids someday and then protecting Rita from some children who start throwing snowballs at them, while yelling at her "I will protect you, Your Majesty". Of course, after the perfect day they spent together (which had been painstakingly rehearsed in the previous cycles), he manages to make Rita care for him for the first time, just to lose her for not being patient (after all, for Rita they have just met). That makes him grow increasingly frustrated, and the next time we see them building that snowman, Phil is shouting, "Golly, I want lots of kids! I want to adopt! I want to have my own! I want foster kids!", and, when the the same children as last time throw snowballs at them, he starts laughing like a madman while throwing snowballs back at them and shouting, "Come here! Let's have some fun! I wish these were my own kids! Are any of you up for adoption?". His comic timing is impeccable! Not only that, but when he is fighting to prevent the old beggar from dying, he truly manages to make us feel that he cares and has genuinely changed in these years reliving Groundhog Day. Also, when he confesses his love for Rita while she's asleep next to him, he manages to express only with his eyes and his tone of voice all the sadness of knowing that, tomorrow, they would be strangers once again. It's his love for Rita, actually, that makes him want to change, to become a man deserving of her love.

Rita and Phil, after Phil had started to try and make
things move a little quicker

Unfortunately, Andie MacDowell' is not as gifted in the art of acting... She does a decent job of being the charming, easy-laughing producer when there are more actors around and, therefore, she is not at the audience's center of attention for too long; however, any scene in which she is alone with Bill Murray makes that fact stand out like a sore thumb. One of her biggest offenders is the one where she thinks the whole day she and Phil had spent together was a set-up, after Phil tells her he loves her: she is totally unable to convincingly show any anger, sadness or disappointment, giving me several times the impression she was faking it and that, at any moment, she would shout out something like "Nah, I'm just pulling your leg!". Another key scene of the movie made painful to watch because of her is the one I mentioned in the previous paragraph, in which Phil is confessing his love for her while she's half-asleep next to him in bed. It's so obvious she's faking it that I was actually waiting for her to open her eyes and smile after Phil had fallen asleep (which would have redeemed her... a little bit... in that scene...). I wonder how she managed to beat Anjelica Huston's Morticia Addams to the Saturn Award for best actress in 1993 with this performance...

Ned!

Thankfully, the remaining cast is excellent. A favorite of mine is Stephen Tobolowsky's Ned, Phil's High School acquaintance, now an overly-happy life insurance salesman, who cheerfully meets him every cycle at the same street corner. He's got two great scenes with Bill Murray: first, when Phil is at his living la vida loca stage, he greets poor Ned with an exclamation and a punch in the face, knocking the guy out; the other scene that always manages to make me laugh is, when they meet at the same street corner, Phil hugs Ned tightly and whispers in his ear "I have missed you so much. I don't know where you're headed, but can you call in sick?", which, needless to say, scares Ned out of his heartwarming friend reunion. Other characters worth mentioning are Angela Paton's Mrs. Lancaster, the jolly owner of the bed-and-breakfast Phil is staying at, and Ken Hudson Campbell's nameless man in the hallway, greeting Phil every morning.

Besides, can you imagine waking up every day to Sonny and Cher for year after year after year? I would surely go mad...

Summarizing it:

Liked	Didn't like
Bill Murray. He makes the film unforgettable, stealing every single scene he appears in.	Andie MacDowell. She nearly ruined the whole movie for me...

A line that makes me laugh every time I hear Bill Murray say it:

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Great Movie review by Roger Ebert here.

If you liked this movie, then maybe try watching Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004).

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