Andy Colebrooke

It’s Groundhog Day!

Type the phrase ‘Groundhog Day’ into a search engine and you’ll get millions of results. A cursory look will find news reports like these: Boris Johnson warns MPs against ‘getting into some hellish Groundhog Day debate’ about the European Union; the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, comparing debates in General Synod to scenes from Groundhog Day; and an Aussie cricketer falling victim, yet again, to a New Zealander’s short ball is reported as ‘Groundhog Day again for David Warner’. There are millions more where these came from. It’s become the phrase people reach for when they want to describe life’s repetitive moments, times when boredom and frustration reign. It has now passed into the vernacular and into our dictionary. 

If it wasn’t, then winter will end early, but if it was, then there’ll be six more weeks of winter. It has become a cause for partying in towns where this bizarre ceremony takes place and has now become well known the world-over through the 1993 film-comedy Groundhog Day, starring Bill Murray and Andi MacDowell.

Murray is weatherman Phil Connors, who works for a local TV station in Pittsburgh. He is sent, along with his new producer Rita (MacDowell) to the small town of Punxsutawney to cover its own groundhog ceremony. (Punxsutawney is indeed a real place in Pennsylvania, and has a pet groundhog, called Phil.) Weatherman Phil is totally wrapped up in his own ego, far too important, in his own mind, to be working for such a minor station and reporting on such a silly ceremony. He is also a womaniser who has his eyes on Rita. He is rude and cruelly sarcastic, someone who has never quite grown up.

Phil, Rita and their cameraman arrive the day before in order to be ready early next morning to cover the 8 o’clock ceremony. That done, they start to drive back to Pittsburgh, but a blizzard strike forces them to return to Punxsutawney to stay another night. When Phil wakes up in his hotel bed the next day, he finds it’s not the next day, but the beginning of the day he has just had – February 2^nd again, Groundhog Day! To add to his confusion, nobody else is experiencing his déjà vu; he meets the same people in the same places, at the same times, all unaware of Phil’s predicament.  He is confused and anxious, then, when he wakes the next morning, he is panic stricken – because it’s still Groundhog Day and he must go through it again!

          Caught in a never-ending time-loop of one day what is he to do? Phil being the kind of guy he is, he decides to exploit the situation. He uses his days to gather information about people, especially about Rita – what are her likes and dislikes, what’s her picture of the perfect man.  Armed with this information he tries repeatedly to seduce her, each time ending in failure. The question the film poses is: can such an egotistical person, one so immature, ever live long enough, to change for the better? Would one lifetime be enough? Indeed, for a person so full of his own importance and so abusive towards others, would even eternity be sufficient?

It’s a question the film handles with great humour, but also surprising depth. Each new day (although it’s the same day) he meets with only failure and frustration because of the flaws in his character. Depressed he attempts suicide, only to wake in his bed again to find it’s Groundhog Day. It is ultimately a story of redemption as Phil comes to recognise goodness through the person of Rita. After multiple attempts to kill himself, Phil recognises that things will only get better if he confronts his flaws and begins to think of others rather than himself.

Bill Murray is perfectly cast as the obnoxious, but charming Phil. In the 30 years since its release, it has become a classic of the cinema. I like it because, in spite of its absurdities, its several anomalies, and its need for the suspension of disbelief, it’s a brilliant comedy that morphs into meaningful fable – love wins out in the end. There’s a scene where Rita purchases Phil at a Bachelor Auction, reminiscent of God winning back the lost. If you haven’t seen it, I recommend you do (DVD or your favourite streaming platform), and if you have seen it, why not watch it again – you are bound to see something in it you have not seen before. It has recently been given the musical treatment: Groundhog Day – The Musical, which opened for a second run in London at the Old Vic in May 2023.

Andy Colebrooke

Illustration by jull from Pixabay