A romatic comedy that doesnt suck (Groundhog Day (DVD))

Member Name: Burning_Darkness

Product:	Groundhog Day (DVD)
Date:	05/11/09 (46 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Bill Murray is excellent, witty sarcastic dialogue, darkly humorous, ultimately uplifting

Disadvantages: None

Released in 1993, Groundhog Day stars Bill Murray as bitter and self-centred weatherman Phil, who has been sent out on an assignment with his producer Rita (Andie Macdowall) and an accompanying cameraman by the name of Larry (Chris Elliott) to report on Groundhog Day in a remote town in Pennsylvania, a festival in which the locals celebrate the emergance of a groundhog from its borrow, thus signifying the beginning of spring.

Phil is bemused to discover however that his day just repeats over and over seemingly endlessly, and trapped in this endlessly self-perpetuating timeline he falls in love with Rita and tries to woo her, failing miserably at first and plunging into suicidal despair, genearlly being horrible to everyone and trying repeatedly to kill himself only to wake up bright and early at 6am on the very same day that he last woke up on. The film is darkly humourous, with some great, sarcastic fdialoge and some amusing scenes such as the one in which Phil kidnaps the groundhof, hijacks a pickup truck and drives the pair of them off a big cliff, the truck exploding in a giant plume of smoke in the valley below.

Bill Murray is perfectly cast as Phil, what with his trademark miserable and deadpan air, and he plays his character very well, in a way that is both engaging and consistently entertaining. Phil eventually realises that he must change as a person in order to win Rita, and after proving his situation to her only to wake up alone in bed at 6am once more the next day he sets about changing himself and the way he percieves and interacts with the world around him for the better.

The film is centered around the Aristotilian notion that the critera for living a good life is to live virtuously, and in honesty Groundhog Day is just a reinterpretation of Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol' (in fact, Murray had already vistited this territory previously in the 80s Dickens update 'Scrooge'), but the film nevertheless manages to feel fresh, sharp and ultimately hearwarming, albeit with enough bitterness and cynicism throughout for the inevitably saccharine ending to remain palatable. A great seasonal film to chase away those Christmas blues.

Summary: A great spin on Dickens' Christmas Carol.