| BEYOND THE MOVIE :
Groundhog
Day
by Annalisa & Giampiero Cara
This
"sophisticated comedy" has become a "cult movie"
with a deep spiritual meaning. But it is also a movie about love,
the irresistible cosmic force capable of extending human perception
even beyond the most deeply-rooted limitations.
Originally
produced as a sophisticated comedy, this movie has become, in time,
a real "cult movie", as it hides a profound spiritual meaning behind
its perfect comical mechanism.
The
Buddhist critic Tom Armstrong has defined it "the greatest
Buddhist movie ever made", while other Christian and Jewish critics
have compared the vicissitudes of its main character to those of
Israel in its biblical journey from Egypt to Canaan.
Many
screenwriting professors cite it as a model to students, and postmodern
philosophers study the alternate realities it proposes. A Harvard
professor, Stanley Cavell, even named this movie when asked by New
York Times Magazine what works will be cherished one-hundred years
from now.
Nevertheless,
what still seems to escape even the sharpest critics' notice is
that Groundhog Day is, first and foremost, a great romantic movie.
Or better, a movie about love not so much in the conventional meaning
of the word, as in the sense of an irresistible cosmic force capable
of overcoming any apparent obstacle and of extending human perception
even beyond the most deeply-rooted limitations.
In
fact, at the beginning of the movie, the main character's perception
is limited indeed. Phil Connors, wonderfully played by a great Bill
Murray, is the meteorologist of a Pittsburgh TV station, and
he is presented as a cynical, unfriendly and egotistical person,
always praising himself and criticizing others (although all these
negative qualities are filtered through Murray's comical interpretation,
of course.)
But
his personality-shield seems to melt for an instant when he sees
for the first time Rita, the beautiful and sweet producer (played
with customary grace by Andie McDowell), who is going to
take him to the duty travel that will change his life.
Phil
seems struck by her, but not long enough to make us think that it
can be something important. His cynical attitude immediately regains
the upper hand, and It finds in Rita's trusting naivete a new target
to hit with sarcastic jokes.
With
her and Harry, the driver (an always funny Chris Elliot),
Phil has to go to Punxsutawny, a small Pennsylvania town, to do
a reportage on Groundhog Day, a popular event in the U.S.
The
second of February of every year the town residents gather with
thousands of tourists around an outdoor stage where the nice groundhog
Phil comes out of his log and predicts if an early spring or six
more weeks of winter are to be expected.
There
are important similarities between the groundhog and the main character
of the movie, although at first they seem only funny coincidences.
They are both called Phil and considered capable of predicting the
weather.
Actually,
the vision of Punxsatawney Phil, that every year, coming out of
its log, inevitably sees a shadow - sure sign, as legend has it,
of the fact that the winter will not end in advance - reflects the
vision of Phil Connors, whose perception of life seem to condemn
him to an unending winter of solitude and sadness masked as ambition
and cynicism.
Nevertheless,
for Phil Connors spring will come much earlier than could be expected.
It will take only one day for his icy heart to melt. But it will
be a really special day...
The
day before Phil's extraordinary Groundhog Day seems nothing special.
The conceited meteorologist who considers himself a TV star is annoyed
because, for the fourth year in a row, he has to cover an event
that, in his view, is an eloquent example of how stupid people are.
So many people go there just to wait for a "rat" to tell them always
the same, predictable thing! He also considers it an offence to
his profession, which he takes very seriously.
It
is understandable, then, that he wants to get it over with as soon
as possible. His bosses and colleagues at the TV station tell him
to take it easy, since there is also the risk of a snow storm in
the Punxsatawney area. But Phil has forecast that the wind will
push the storm in another direction, so he wants to come back to
Pittsburgh the day after, as soon as he finishes his job.
Understandable
is also his furious disappointment when, the day after, on the way
back to Pittsburgh, the van with him, Rita and Larry aboard is stopped
by the police because the snow storm has made the roads unpracticable.
Phil's
rage has another important cause: he always wants to be able to
predict and control people and events (no surprise he's a meteorologist),
and he doesn't accept that things can go in another way.
But
Phil's frustration for not being able to leave Punxsutawney that
day is nothing when compared to the incredulous desperation he will
feel when, the morning after - and for hundreds of other identical
mornings - he will wake up always in the same day, that "damned"
February the second, the "Groundhog Day", surrounded by people who
live it as if it were the first time. And
his desperation will deepen when Phil discovers that not even science
(represented by local doctor and psychologist) can explain his incredible
experience.
At
this point in the movie, we can feel what the main character feels
because, in a sense, we find ourselves in a similar situation. In
fact, the authors (Danny Rubin and the ex-ghostbuster Harold
Ramis, who is also the director) don't explain how something
so crazy, according to ordinary perception, could happen. And they
never will, not even in the end, leaving to the spectator the task
of finding her own explanation, raising her consciousness with that
of the main character.
At
the beginning, the fact that he finds himself trapped in this space-time
paradox doesn't change the way Phil relates to people. On the contrary,
it makes it worse.
In
the first repetitions of Groundhog Day, Phil is only angrier at
people who always do and say the same things (unless Phil does or
says something different). Then he begins to make some discoveries,
but at first these discoveries do nothing but emphasize the shortcomings
of his personality, or better the limits of his perception.
The
first discovery is that, since for him every morning is always February
the second, whatever he does in that day doesn't seem to have any
effects on the next repetition of the same day. Therefore, like
a child finally free to steal a pot of jam, Phil rids himself of
responsibilities that he, having no respect for others, feels only
as imposed by society.
"I'm
not living by their rules anymore!" he declares triumphantly, before
doing crazy things like running against a train on the railroad
tracks with a car, stealing money from a mail van to buy a Mercedes
and drive it dressed as a western movie hero, or stuffing himself
with the fattest food in the world without gaining an ounce.
To
Phil Connors, people are just instruments to use to his own advantage,
and now that he can use them with no consequences for him, his manipulating
tendency gets worse.
An
example is how he seduces Nancy, a somewhat frivolous but sweet
local girl, taking her to bed with the promise (free of consequences
for him, of course) to marry her.
But
it's just living to the extreme his "errors of perception" that,
in the end, Phil will overcome them, discovering that the prison
from which his Self wants to escape is really that of his egotism.
It
is in this way that he will come to loving others and being loved
by them. Using his perfect knowledge of everything that will happen
in every "new" edition of the Groundhog Day to help others
instead of exploiting them (he saves a man who's about to choke
himself to death with food, for example, or a child who falls from
a tree), he will even become the most popular man in Punxsutawney.
It
will be Rita to act as a catalyzer in this fundamental shift of
perception. We begin to suspect she's the real cause of Phil's absurd
situation when he pronounces her name while he hugs Nancy.
When
he understands he's attracted to her, at first Phil tries to manipulate
her like he did with Nancy. He begins to ask her what she likes.
Then, in the next repetition of the same day, uses his knowledge
to make an impression on her. His attempts, however, work until
a certain point, then always end abruptly with Rita slapping him
for insulting her. She definitely doesn't need to be manipulated
by a man who just wants to have sex with her.
When
Phil surrenders, understanding that his old ways will never get
him the love he needs, at first he falls prey to desperation. Since,
apart from manipulation, he doesn't know other ways to relate to
people, he decides to kill himself.
Although
he doesn't admit it to himself, he's like a romantic hero who, realizing
he's not loved back by the woman he loves, decides it's not worth
living anymore. So he will kill himself dozens of times in various
ways, but every time he wakes up again in his hotel room at six
o' clock in the morning and it's always Groundhog Day.
But
even if he doesn't succeed in literally killing himself, Phil dies
just the same. Or better, it's his old, limited perception that
dies, allowing the full expression of his true nature. Feeling he's
got nothing to lose anymore, Phil finally chooses to follow his
heart, overcoming the fear that until then had prevented him to
do so.
Now
that his ego thinks there's nothing to gain from the situation anymore,
Phil finally allows his true self to express emotions he had repressed
for a long time (the cold, rational meteorologist becomes, among
other things, a sensitive artist), and begins to build sincere and
disinterested relationships with others.
He
stops trying to seduce Rita and admits that he loves her but feels
himself unworthy of her love. "The first time I saw you, something
happened to me," he tells her when he finally succeeds in "taking
her to bed", but just to watch her tenderly while she sleeps. "I
knew I wanted to hold you as hard as I could. I don't deserve someone
like you. But if I ever could, I would stay with you for the rest
of my life."
This
"declaration" represents one of the two fundamental moments in Phil's
liberation, when he stops lying and surrenders to the truth of his
heart. The other comes during the last repetition of Groundhog Day,
when, watching Rita again, Phil says: "It doesn't matter what happens
tomorrow or for the rest of my life. I'm happy now."
And
it is in this awareness of the eternity of the present moment that
Phil frees himself of the last illusion: believing in the existence
of a time that entraps us in its apparently inexorable flow. Phil
discovers that the instant contains eternity, that time can stop
in front of love's omnipotent force.
Since
reality is simply what we perceive of it, the repetitions of the
Groundhog Day take place only in Phil the meteorologist's perception.
He's the one who takes so long to understand he's different from
the person he believed himself to be.
In
Rita's perception, on the other hand, such a transformation can
happen in just one day, because she's already open to love. She
believes that, kissed for just one day by her redeeming presence,
even an ugly frog can become a beautiful prince. And she's right.
Copyright © 1999 Annalisa & Giampiero Cara | 
