Дон Андре's blog/

Yesterday was a time to be reminded again of one of the best movies ever produced. February, 2nd does it ring already? We're talking about the eternal decision of the northern hemisphere, the decision between winter and spring, between death and life and between being a cold and cynic person and a warm loving one. February, 2nd in some parts of the United States is celebrated as Groundhog Day where "a thousand people freezing their butts off waiting to worship a rat".

The accuracy of the prediction are no good as we learn from wikipedia: The National Climatic Data Center reportedly has stated that the overall predictions accuracy rate is around 39%. That seems pretty bad to predict the outcome of a binary variable. If we look at 2009 predictions from some of the hogs its 8:5 in favour of 6 weeks more winter.... well who cares.

Fortunately Groundhog Day has provided the frame for the equally named movie. Can I still say that there are spoilers ahead? Phil Connors is the main character, played by Bill Murray, and a journalist at a fictional tv station in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He's a self-centred, cynic and uncontent man with a tongue as sharp as a razor blade. In the beginning of the movie, still in Pittsburgh, he meets his new producer Rita, played by Andie Mac-Dowell. She's the opposite of Phil, she is a lively and happy person with a friendly touch of curiosity and a loving approach to everyone. Phil later in the plot describes her in one of the very romantic scenes like this: "You like boats, but not the ocean. You go to a lake in the summer with your family up in the mountains. There's a long wooden dock and a boathouse with boards missing from the roof, and a place you used to crawl underneath to be alone. You're a sucker for French poetry and rhinestones. You're very generous. You're kind to strangers and children, and when you stand in the snow you look like an angel." That's among the most beautiful and honest sentences that have ever been said in a movie. But we're not this far in the plot yet. Rita, Phil and the cameraman Larry are assigned to report from the Groundhog Day festivals in a place that can hardly be pronounced: Punxsutawney and it's there that the story will unfold.

Upon arriving Rita surprises Phil by anticipating his rants about the accomodation. It's one of the very important scenes in the character development of Phil as you can tell by his puzzled look. Puzzled is not something you would attribute Phil to in the first part and that's why this scene is so important. He's puzzled how she is able to completely absorb his bad character while facing him directly. So Phil sleeps at a guest house. The next day is February, 2nd and it's the characteristic image of the clock that switches from 5:59 to 6:00 and Phil waking up. The music starts playing the tune from Sonny & Cher "I got you babe". This is where the irony starts and this is the tune that will wake Phil up now for every single day. What follows is that Phil does his job at the gobbler's knob, Rita wants him to do it again and with less sarcasm, but he just walks away. He's not the guy to please other people. Ho ho hold your horses! Rita, the producer(!), asks Phil to do it again. That's the first anticipation of what is to come and wow, we can think of the possibilities this opens for interpretation: Is Rita a symbol for God?

Phil pushes everyone to leave as fast as possible, but unfortunately a snow storm blocks the road and they have to turn back to stay another night. It's a very excellent detail of this film, that exactly the weather that he predicts with so much self-confidence is now playing a trick on him and it's the first sign that the world as he believed to control instead is now turning to control him. If you think back to some of the first scenes where he first met Rita, it was exactly her that was playing around with the weather screen.

That strengthenes the interpretation that in some way she's behind this. Even though I think this is not intended. Also I don't really like the idea of a religious motive in this movie. It's not focused on heavy dogmatics, it completely ignores the debates that religion constantly bangs its head into (you know them...). It's about morale though, ethics and charity which also form a strong part of the christian religion and in some form it's also about rituals (the pilgrimage to Gobbler's Knob). But honestly, I don't know what the hog should symbolize or mean. This is when I believe that after all it's an entertaining story and not a totally deep pool of wild interpretations. I love this trade-off, between some symbolism and some parts that are just there by themselves.

Well, the three return to Punxsutawney, Phil desperately tries to escape or at least get a phone call, but the village is completely cut-off from the rest of the world. They go to bed and then it happens, or better it does not happen as Phil later tries to explain on the telephone: "Well, what if there is no tomorrow? There wasn't one today." The day repeats again, Phil is getting increasingly unsure, he's getting even more puzzled and he seeks the advice of other people. He does the same job again and he's getting into conflict with all the other people at the same time as he's trying to get help from them. He does know things the others don't know: That a snow storm is blocking the road that he meets the same people which tell him the same things and he still makes the same errors. Only he can remember what has happened "yesterday".

What follows is the best part of the movie, Phil goes through several different emotional stages. You can watch his up and downs. After denial and anger he is rediscovering his curiosity and playing the game. He does things he did not dare to do before, because there's no tomorrow, there's no consequence. Also, he discovers the advantages of getting closer and closer to Rita slowly. After all he does like her a lot and as there's no consequence, there's also no shame in admitting that he loves her. He invites her out and each day he corrects the mistakes he made the previous day. While doing so he gets more and more involved in her world and learns to see the beauty of it, but doesn't yet understand it. It's thrilling to watch, funny and beautiful at the same time. You can see how he is lying to her every day as he uses the powers that he has got to get her into bed. But, he isn't ready yet, he hasn't changed and it's like a school project for him (IIRC Rita even directly says this). He reaches a point where he cannot go further and where Rita discovers the lie and that his heart is still cold. It's amazing that Rita really recognizes the true inner soul of him. Phil breaks because of this. He feels that he is so close to reaching her and pulling her really close, but cannot do as she's also still miles away at the same time. It's like they're standing on two seperate sides of a canyon and Phil just moved on his side to the point closest to the other side. It's still to far too jump though, but there's a bridge.

It's this ambivalent relation that is portrayed so beautifully in the movie and it's exactly that, which makes him feel extremely sad. Rita in one scene predefines the conditions for his salvation in one of the dialogues: "Phil asks her: What are you looking for? Who is your perfect guy? Rita: First of all, he's too humble to know he's perfect. [..] He's intelligent, supportive, funny. [..] He's romantic and courageous. [..] He's got a good body, but doesn't look in the mirror every two minutes. [..] He's kind, sensitive and gentle. [..] He's not afraid to cry in front of me. [..] He like animals and children, and he'll change poopy diapers. [..] And he plays an instrument, and he loves his mother." All said in one awesome dialogue between Rita and Phil. Without ever refering to this list again, all of this is what we're going to see Phil do. Rita and Phil also once have a discussion on God in which Phil claimes to be a God, he doesn't claim to be the only God, but he thinks of his unique position and interprets it as being God. In some sense this is an understanding human feeling, but in another sense, does Phil really have the control a God has? Also we hear Rita saying that 12 years of catholic school ensure her enough to say that he's not God. Some religious fans might interpret this in their own way, I just think in Phil's position, who'd not believe to be a God at least once?

But there is one scene that shows that Phil is not in control and shows him the value of life. This is another major turning point in the development of his character and when he recognizes that he has to leave his current path. It's when the old homeless guy dies. Exactly on this repeating day in his small, but in some sense perfect small town world. He feels absolutely helpless about this guy and sees that his powers are actually not strong enough, that he still only has the powers that every human has, and an infinite amount of time to improve them. It's one of the most beautiful and sad scenes in the movie when he finds the guy dying, and takes him to the hospital. A nurse tells him that the old man just died and despite being called back he runs to his bed, pulls the curtain away and stands looking. The nurse says "Sometimes people just die" to which he replies "Not today". Just these two words say it all. Never has there been a better suited response that in its shortness expresses everything that he feels and that he feels he must do from now on. This is what sets him on his mission: That today is a perfect day and that he will make it perfect given the power he has! This is when he'll start to clean house and to work hard, not to get loved only by Rita, but to get loved by all the people there.

The rest is the story of a happy end which is both entertaining and interesting to watch. Phil becomes a good person, but still retains some of his humorous cynism. It lost its mean spiritedness though. Finally he seems to have accepted his situation, after making the best out of him and the world around him. This is when he gets released.

It's amazing how somebody wrote a script like this, how somebody balanced the movie so that it never becomes too much kitch, that it always stays entertaining and most of all realistic, despite this totally fictional situation. And that it also provides such a good ground for interpretation.

Punxsutawney in some way is a prison, but it's not a place of punishment it's a place of absolute freedom. In this limited space Phil has the possibility to do absolutely everything. The only thing that he cannot do is make something last. Every day he has to start all over. In some way every human being is like Phil, we're living in a small place mostly, we've got to deal with consequences, but in the end we're also doing things all over our whole life (one of the drunk, visionless guys ironically called his situation the same as Phil's). The movie tells me in a nice way that doing good and being a charitable person is finally saving me and putting me into a world of new possibilities.

Like I said before, it's the best movie ever produced and note that I'm talking about a 1993 movie as if nobody knew it...