Groundhog Day (1993) is an American comedy movie directed by Harold Ramis and written by Ramis and Danny Rubin. Movie resale date is 1993. The movie is about a weather forecaster who was caught in time loop. There was re-occurrence of events in his life. Days were same for the long time. We will see how the hero of this movie will deal with this situation.
Before starting the movie, we will see the plot of this movie.
Plot
As earlier mentioned, the movie is based on concept of time loop or déjà vu. The name of TV weatherman is Phil Connors. He was assigned to go to a town named Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania to cover the event named “Groundhog day”. Along with him, there was a TV producer named Rita Hanson and a cameraman, Larry. After arriving at town, he wanted to come back as soon as possible. But there is a twist in movie. He stuck there and compelled to live there. It is interesting to see the number of events that occurred during the whole movie and how it changed the life of Phil.
Terms to know
Groundhog Day
Groundhog is an animal. There is a tradition in North America in which groundhog comes out of its burrow and if he sees its shadow, there will be more winter for six weeks and if he doesn’t see it, there will be early spring. They determine the upcoming weather through this tradition. It is celebrated on 2nd February. Another meaning of this term is reappearance of unwanted events again and again.
Time loop
It is a phenomenon where events are repeated and person experiences the same thing again and again with the hope that this cycle will be broken or ended. Simply it means “YOU ARE STUCK AT ONE POINT”.
Déjà vu
It is a French word which means “Already seen”. A person feels that he has already experienced these things and it is happening again.
Characters
- Phil Connors , a Weatherman
- Rita Hanson, TV producer
- Larry , Cameraman
Story of Groundhog Day
Movie starts with a scene in which Phil was reporting weather from the studio. Now he has to go to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania with Rita and Larry to cover the event “Groundhog Day”. Phil really dislikes to go there but he has to. They arrive there and the next day is Groundhog Day. People celebrate it like a festival. Phil reports the event sarcastically. Groundhog sees his shadow and this was the prediction that winter will stay for next 6 weeks. After this, Phil wants to go back to his town but he can’t go because of storm and bad weather conditions. He is compelled to spend one more day here.
Next day when he wakes up, he gets to know that again today is Groundhog Day. At first, he ignores this and takes sleeping pills to sleep. When the same day is coming over and over again, he becomes suspicious. He tells Rita, “Rita, I am reliving same day over and over.” Rita tells her to meet psychiatrist. Phil meets psychiatrist but it doesn’t help. He tells two men in the club the same problem. They advise him to make the choices with this situation because he is unable to change it.
“If there is no tomorrow, what would you do?”
Phil starts taking advantage of his situation. He steals the money, drinks alcohol, break the law enforcement and enjoys one-night stand. He is interested in Rita so he tries to impress her. Every time he fails to impress her and gets slapped by her. After this, he becomes distressed and stops enjoying Déjà vu. After becoming so much frustrated, he kidnaps groundhog and falls down from the hill along with groundhog in the car. But it is of no use, he survives and again faces another Groundhog Day. He tries to suicide so many times but never dies. Always finds himself safe in his bed on very next day. One dialogue by Rita makes great difference to him ….
“It’s not a curse. It’s depends on how you look at it.”
An annoyed person starts to change by accepting the situation and starts making positive moves. He starts reading books, talks to Larry in a good mood which he has never done before, ice sculpting, treating people well with a smiling face and so on. Phil gives money to old beggar the very first time and even takes him to hospital when he was ill but he dies.
It really makes Phil sad and the next day (same day for Phil), he feeds the old man and feels happiness but can’t stop the old man form dying. The death has to come one day and no can stops it or denies it. Phil starts learning how to play piano. He starts helping others such as safe the child from falling on ground, fills the air in tire and so on. He becomes the hero of the town. A journey of egoistic to versatile.
At the end, at the party where there is bidding on bachelors, Rita bids on him $339.88 and he goes with Rita. They spend the night enjoying with each other and Phil makes ice sculpt of Rita. But Phil knows, nothing will be there on tomorrow and he will again experiences Groundhog Day. However, when he wakes up, Rita is still with him which surprises him. It means it is the end of “déjà vu”. It is a new day for him. He gets the love of his life and becomes an incredible different person. It is the end of the movie where Phil and Rita both live together happily.
In a nutshell:
Half full or half empty
Situations are not always under control. It doesn’t matter how the situations are, the thing which matters how one is looking at those situations whether a positive mind or a negative mind. If you think things are not going right, it is never going to change them. You have to make efforts. The way you deal with it matters.
Make the choices
If things are not in your control or favor, rather changing them, makes the choices with this. If you choose to deal with them with bravery, you can do it. Consequences depend on the choices you make and choices depend on you attitude and perspectives.
Live to learn
When Phil starts learning new and meaningful things, it makes his life better. His attitude changes. This is with all of us. When we are only living to pass the days, months, years, there will be nothing to amuse us and to make positive change. Start learning from every moment and everyone. If you focus, you can see you are always in learning phase which makes your life meaningful.
Conclusion
The movie is about the journey of man from egocentric to caring, meaningless life to meaningful life and negative attitude to positive attitude. It gives us lesson until we don’t accept our situation and start dealing with it positive attitude, it is always going to trouble us. When we get the meaning of life which simply means:
“Live to learn, live to serve. Live a meaningful life.”
Author: Sumeran