Subject: REVIEW: GROUNDHOG DAY

From: [email-masked] (Mark R. Leeper)
Date: Tue, 16 Feb 1993 21:33:20 GMT

[Followups directed to rec.arts.movies.]

                               GROUNDHOG DAY
                      A film review by Mark R. Leeper
			Copyright 1993 Mark R. Leeper

          Capsule review:  If you could live one day over and
     over, as if you were replaying a video game, could you ever
     get the day perfect?  What would be your best strategy?  Bill
     Murray plays a weatherman reliving over and over February 2
     in Punxsutawney, PA.  What is the best he can make of the
     day?  The premise is engaging and the execution entertaining.
     Rating: high +1 (-4 to +4).

     On May 5, 1961, TWILIGHT ZONE ran an episode called "Shadow Play,"
written by Charles Beaumont and directed by John Brahm.  Dennis Weaver
played Adam Grant, a man sentenced to death.  It is the day Grant is to be
executed for murder.  He claims to have a sort of deja vu and can even tell
people verifiable facts he seems to have no way of knowing.  He claims that
he is living the same day over and over.  Eventually he is executed only to
wake up in his cell with the same day starting over.  This idea gets re-used
and explored in detail in GROUNDHOG DAY.

     Phil (played by Bill Murray) is a television weatherman with a funny
on-screen persona.  Of the television he is bitter and cynical and does just
about whatever he can to make himself difficult to deal with.  February 2,
Groundhog Day, finds Phil in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, filming the famous
Groundhog Day festivities.  Phil is less than thrilled and is making life
miserable for his producer Rita (played by Andie McDowell) and cameraman
Larry (played by Chris Elliot).  Next morning he wakes up and it is still
Groundhog Day.  Phil is living the same day over and over and making the
same mistakes.  The day becomes like a video game that he plays over and
over, practicing to get past all the hazards of the day.  He uses one
strategy after another trying to find how to get the most out of the day and
how best to benefit from having gone through the day use his experiences of
having already been through the day.

     The script (by Danny Rubin and director Harold Ramis) starts taking on
a higher meaning of just what the purpose of life.  Phil can play his day
for thrills, he can play it to gain self-enrichment, he can play it to get
sex, he can be an altruist, or he can romance Rita.  The latter is
questionable since, first, Rita is a bit sappy herself, but also it is a bit
of a challenge since after Phil has been so nasty way back on February 1, it
seems unlikely that one day would be enough for re-educating Rita.  The
film's conclusion about what the best of all possible Groundhog Days is is a
bit of a  cheat, since it depends very heavily on previous knowledge--life
is not really like a video game--and it is somewhat reminiscent of IT'S A
WONDERFUL LIFE.

     Ramis has an intriguing premise taken just about as far as it could be
taken.  It is pleasant but not particularly deep.  I rate it a high +1 on
the -4 to +4 scale.

					Mark R. Leeper
					att!mtgzfs3!leeper
					[email-masked]