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Casey’s Reviews
Watching Groundhog Day Again and Again and Ag—
Does the 1993 Bill Murray flick hold up to multiple viewings?
My husband’s family has a tradition: every Groundhog Day (February 2), they watch Groundhog Day, the 1993 Bill Murray “comedy” directed by Harold Ramis. This year’s viewing was only my second, but my in-laws enjoy the movie year after year — so it must be doing something right!
The conceit of this “rom-com” (which I put deliberately in quotes, for this genre-breaking film) is that a cynical weatherman, Phil Connors (Murray), gets stuck re-living a day antithetical to his grumpy temperament: a stay in small-town Punxsutawney covering the annual Groundhog Day celebration at Gobbler’s Knob.
Although his plucky new producer Rita (Andie MacDowell) and lovelorn cameraman Larry (Chris Elliot) enjoy the quirky, wholesome atmosphere of Punxsutawney, it’s Phil’s nightmare — a never-ending nightmare. Each morning he awakes in a cozy bed and breakfast to the 6.00 radio alarm playing “I’ve Got You Babe” and relives the same day again and again and again and again and —
