Current Date:March 28, 2024
Ground Hog Day

Movie 4 d week : Groundhog Day (1993)

 

by Vinoo

Language : English

Director : Harold Ramis

It is yesterday all over again.  Sounds familiar eh? “Groundhog Day’is a day in the life of Phil Connors (Bill Murray whose ‘Broken flowers’ is one of my all-time favourites). He is a reporter / weatherman and has been covering the Groundhog Day at Punxatawney, Pennsylvania, year after year. Groundhog day is celebrated on the 2nd of February in the US and Canada. The belief is that whether a groundhog coming out of his burrow sees his shadow or not determines how long the winter will last. Phil hates the whole event, the place, the people in the city and even the fact that he is doing the story. He goes through the reporting like it is a chore. He has a new manager, a woman by name Rita (Andie McDowell) and a cameraman, Larry (Chris Elliot). Phil wakes up and reports the event and then again the next day he goes through the same routine. By the third day he figures the Groundhog Day is repeating. Phil figures he can even change things in the course of the day. He knows which old friend and insurance agent he will bump into on way to his reporting, when an armored bank truck loaded with cash will pass by, what is it that the woman he loves is looking for, and just about everything else. Phil relives yesterday with the option of changing  course of the day to make it a better one, for himself that is. The brilliant script allows for many comic moments and this is one romantic comedy I really loved watching all over again. Bill Murray as always is brilliant and Andie McDowell and Chris Elliot fit their roles perfectly. How good your day goes depends entirely on you. Well… I would like to read it that way. Don’t miss this laugh riot.

Harold Ramis is brilliant with this genre. Other must-watch films of his include ‘Analyze this’, ‘Analyze that’, ‘Bedazzled’, etc. He has also scripted ‘Ghostbusters’ and has written the screenplay to ‘Groundhog Day’ along with Danny Rubin on whose story it is based.

Sorry for the long absence when I was between the Chennai Screenwriting Workshop and attempting to write. Did a lot of reading and watched quite a few movies during the break. ‘Revanche’ was good and so was ‘Ten canoes’ and ‘The consequences of love’. I really loved watching Steven Soderbergh’s ‘Che’ – Part I ‘The Argentine’ and Part II ‘Guerilla’. Don’t miss ’13 Tzameti’ and ‘Nada’. Some Tamil movies I caught recently and worth a watch include ‘Naan Kadavul’ – average, ‘Anbe Sivam’ – good, ‘Paruthiveeran’ – brilliant, ‘Subramanyapuram’ – brilliant again. Also happened to watch ‘Fashion’ on TV. I’d rather not talk about it.

Watched ‘Five’ : Abbas Kiarostami’s tribute to Ozu. Really painful watch for me except the last of the five takes.

Useless trivia : Bill Murray was bitten by the groundhog twice during shooting. The actual film was shot in Woodstock, and not Punxatawney, and there is a small plaque, which reads ‘Bill Murray stepped here’ on the curb where he steps into a puddle.

The idea for the film is apparently from the book ‘The Gay Science‘, by Friedrich Nietzsche, which has the description of a man living the same day over and over again.

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