Review of Groundhog Day (1993) by John K — 15 Oct 2011

Watching this film in 2011, the concept seems very familiar: it's cropped up in several TV series, e.g. "Stargate SG-1" and "Xena: Warrior Princess". The film has been so influential that it's easy to forget how novel the idea was in 1993.

I'd probably describe this film as a comedy: there are certainly a lot of funny bits. However, there's also a more serious side, with one very moving scene, and it's actually quite inspiring.

There are lots of films where the first 20 minutes is just setting up the premise that you already know from the trailer, so you could just walk in late and get a quick recap from someone else. In a way, this is similar, since it takes 17 minutes before the first loop occurs. However, those 17 minutes are significant because you need to see which things change and which remain the same.

When I saw the trailer, I thought that the film would be quite boring if they kept repeating the same scene over and over again (for all of Phil's failed attempts to court Rita). However, that was handled very well: the film gave enough of a recap to provide the right context, but not enough to be boring.

The trailer also made me think that the whole film was about "getting the girl", which isn't really the case. In fact, it's pretty clear that planning spontaneity doesn't work. I doubt this was intentional, but it serves as a good critique of the "PUA" (Pick-Up Artist) community which seems to have grown with the internet.

My only real criticism of the film is that we don't see why Phil is in love with Rita. He says that she's kind to people, but the film never shows that, because we don't really see her interact much with other people at all. I can understand why she is attracted to him when he matures, but I can only assume that he's attracted to her looks. So, it would have been good to get a bit more insight into her character.