Groundhog Day

Groundhog Day. 1993 Columbia Pictures.
Starring: Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell, Chris Elliott, Stephen Tobolowsky, Brian Doyle-Murray
Director: Harold Ramis
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A modest box office hit during 1993, Groundhog Day is now considered one of the great American films, and I would be hard pressed to disagree with those who think so.

A self-centered meteorologist named Phil Connors (Murray), his producer Rita (MacDowell), and a cameraman from fictional Pittsburgh television station WPBH-TV 9, Larry (Elliott) travel to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania to do a remote at the annual Groundhog Day festivities. Phil has grown tired of this annual assignment, and he goes along with it, barely disguising his disdain. After trying to return to Pittsburgh, a blizzard that he predicted would miss the area shuts down the region, sending Phil and company back to Punxsutawney.

Phil wakes up to find he's reliving February 2nd again, with everyone else repeating the same actions as the day before, seemingly unaware of being in a time loop. Phil remembers the events of the previous day, confused at first, but starts to take advantage of the situation without fear of long-term consequences (learning secrets, seducing women, stealing money, driving drunk). Any attempts at getting to know Rita better are shot down. Phil gradually becomes despondent, at one point kidnapping the groundhog and leading the police on a long chase, which ends when he drives over a cliff. He wakes up in the next loop to find that nothing has changed. He still tries to learn more about Rita, revealing the strange predictament to her, and the knowledge he learned about the town's residents. Rita suggests she use this to help benefit the town.

Phil heeds that advice, and starts helping the town's residents out, and even starts bettering himself in the process. Coming around to appreciating the town's festivities, Phil admits his love for Rita, and she does the same. After an evening dance, they retire to Phil's room, waking up on...February 3rd, finally breaking the time loop.

Originally, the film was intended to start in the middle of the narrative, without ever explaining how or why Phil was reliving Groundhog Day. The character of Rita was originally envisioned to be stuck in the same time loop as Phil, and there was initial talk of keeping the pair stuck in time for thousands of years, with Phil keeping track of time by reading a page of a book each day, eventually reading through the entire Punxsutawney public library.

Highly, highly recommended.