Groundhog Day

Time Travel Device: Repeat a single day over and over and over and over . . .

Time Travel Outcome/Purpose: The main character learns and grows.

Coolness Factor: Pinpointing which minor actions can change a life.

Flaws: There is no apparent cause for the time loop, or why it ended. Also, the human mind can only stay stable for so long with no true measurement of time. Could Phil have stayed sane for the years (decades, centuries?) he was stuck in the time loop? (Kate--Good point, Mike! The list will encounter unending time loops again although the characters in these time loops won't remember. Remembering certainly changes the endurance factor.)

Paradox: Time Loop--a period of time that repeats, cycling from beginning to end over and over.

Trivia: Apparently in one version of the script, a voodoo curse was the cause of Phil's time loop, invoked by a love-spurned co-worker, but this was dropped from the final movie. (Kate--This sounds similar to Disney's Beauty & the Beast plot; hey, there's a similar motif!)

Kate says Groundhog Day is basically Scrooged, only far better. Bill Murray did Scrooged—based on Charles Dickens' Christmas Carol--five years before Groundhog Day. Scrooged is rather long, but the thing that makes it a failure, in my view, is that Bill Murray's deadpan mocking edge is too strong at the end. It is hard to believe he has changed.

Murray's deadpan mocking edge is what makes him funny, but it needs to be cut by some sincerity if the viewer is going to believe that Scrooge or Phil has really grown as a person.

I do believe it with Groundhog Day, partly because the viewer actually sees Phil change. (Come to think of it, the suddenness of Scrooge's change is one of that story's flaws.) He goes through an entire lifetime of choices, and his choices plus the results of his choices make him a better person, not a sudden decision to be a better person.

And the cycle of change is quite interesting. Murray goes through Maslow's hierarchy of needs: at first, he focuses on what the day will get him in terms of money and easy sex; then, he focuses on what the day will get him in terms of love; then he begins to reach out to others; finally, he focuses on improving himself for the sake of improvement.

And of course, Murray is very funny. "Do you want to talk about the weather or are you just making chit-chat?"

Mike says that Groundhog Day is a fun movie, but before this list, I never thought of it as a time travel movie; rather, a "odd occurrence" movie.

Groundhog Day does belong in this category, and Phil keeps traveling back again and again until he gets the day just right, allowing him to break the loop and continue with his life. I like that the cause is never really explained, or even hinted at; instead it's up to the viewer to decide. I like to think perhaps divine intervention was the cause.

Bill Murray is sometimes hit and miss with me. I'm not a big fan of "jerk" humor, and the jerk is Murray's typical role. I can't stand What about Bob? But Kate is right: Murray's mean spirited humor is toned down a lot in this movie, and as you see him grow, you believe the change... mostly. That edge still lingers, so when he's being "sincere," I can't help but wonder if it's all an act.

Groundhog Day is also extremely quotable: "Don't drive angry, DON'T DRIVE ANGRY!"

The overall appeal of Groundhog Day, I think, is a comical and simple take on a pretty deep topic--the true nature of life, and time, and how choices change us and those around us. It's told in such a universal accessible way, it's one of those movies everyone has seen. Does it deserve this status? Eh, sure. Why not? It is a fun movie, and it avoids all that technical time travel explanation stuff. Most importantly, I think it builds off something we've all experienced: the monotony of doing the same thing over and over. Groundhog Day isn't just a movie about an everyday man in a weird situation, it's a weird movie for the everyday man.