My Movie Review on Groundhog Day · 7:18pm Feb 2nd, 2020
Rise and shine, Campers!
This is your friendly film, TV show, and episode reporter here with another review.
And today, for the second installment of my "February Festivity", I'm gonna give you guys my review of Bill Murray's "Groundhog Day".
Here's the summary of it:
Phil Connors is a cynical and egotistic weatherman who is assigned to cover the story of Punxsutawney Phil the groundhog for Groundhog Day. Something that Connors openly despises doing. The only difference is that this year he'll be accompanied by Rita Hanson, the news station's new television producer, and Larry the cameraman.
After the holiday ends, though, Phil suddenly finds himself reliving the same day over and over again and he can't seem to stop.
Will Phil be able to find out why this is happening and fix it? Or will he be forced to relive Groundhog Day forever?
I'm gonna be honest, this movie was perhaps one of the hardest I've ever analyzed. In order to be as clear, organized, and detailed as possible, I had to watch this movie more than once on separate occasions just to take everything in. At long last, though, I finally got the hang of it.
The only nitpick that I couldn't help but note was the scene where Phil has sex with Nancy Taylor. The way it played out and was executed didn't exactly seem appropriate for a PG-rated film. Along with that, having been aware of the tension between Bill Murray and Harold Ramis during the movie's production, it was hard to tell whether some elements in the script were made to either get on Murray's nerves or genuinely be part of the storyline.
Other than that, though, the film was overall quite fun to watch.
The performances of the film's cast, the characters, and the character development were all nicely done. Bill Murray, of course, gave the best performance out of everyone. I mean, yes, his character was unlikable at first, but I loved how Phil strongly developed into someone that's kind and honest as the film progressed. Andie MacDowell also knew how to make a great impression in her portrayal of Rita, that's for sure.
The direction by Harold Ramis, the story by Danny Rubin, and the screenplay by Ramis and Rubin, were marvelous. Even though the film was rather all over the place, it tied together nonetheless because it was all part of Phil's self-developing journey. Not every joke in the film was funny, but it still had tons of hilarious comedy worthy of chuckles, giggles, and laughter. Plus, there was brilliant heart and emotion that helped the film be all-the-more alive, the particular soul-giver being the developing romance between Phil and Rita.
Finally, the music by George Fenton was a melodious showstopper. Fenton appeared to have been really into composing for this movie, because the music was so emotionally engaging and ear-catching that it was impossible to not take note of.
In conclusion, "Groundhog Day" isn't perfect. But, it showcases terrific creativity, passion, talent, and it can easily be classified as one of the best films of Bill Murray's career.
So, I rate "Groundhog Day" 4½ out of 5 stars.
And the best part is we have no idea why time was looped in the first place. Making it irrelevant is the perfect way to focus on what's actually happening in the story.
Haven't seen it yet but I've heard a lot about it.
5196461
Yeah, and we watch Phil evolve from a snarky asshole, to someone genuinely heroic