Bill Murray is at his wisecracking best in this riotous romantic comedy about a weatherman caught in a personal time warp on the worst day of his life! Teamed with a relentlessly cheery producer (Andie MacDowell) and a smart aleck cameraman, TV weatherman Phil Connors (Bill Murray) is sent to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania to cover the annual Groundhog Day festivities. On his way out of town, Phil is caught in a giant blizzard - which he himself actually failed to predict - and finds himself stuck in a small town hell. Just when things couldn't get worse, they do! Phil wakes the next morning to find that it's Groundhog Day all over again. And again. And again. During the recurring 24 hour nightmare, Phil starts to realise that he can also use it to his advantage; to re-write the events of his day, and to generally have a whale of a time. But manipulating his day to capture the one woman he really wants is not quite so easy... A truly comic time warp that everyone will enjoy being stuck in!
Directed by
Harold Ramis
Written by
Danny Rubin (story) Danny Rubin (screenplay) and Harold Ramis (screenplay)
Starring
Bill Murray (Phil Connors); Andie MacDowell (Rita); Chris Elliott (Larry); Stephen Tobolowsky (Ned Ryerson); Brian Doyle-Murray (Buster Green); Marita Geraghty (Nancy Taylor); Angela Paton (Mrs. Lancaster); Rick Ducommun (Gus); Rick Overton (Ralph); Robin Duke (Doris, the Waitress); Carol Bivins (Anchorwoman); Willie Garson (Kenny); Ken Hudson Campbell (Man in Hallway); Les Podewell (Old Man); Rod Sell (Groundhog Official). Please contact SFC to add other cast members and characters.
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A rarity in modern romantic comedies
Mark Banks (United Kingdom)
Opinion: Recommended
Few films have the breadth of appeal that Groundhog Day manages to capture, and still less films in the past few decades have managed to strike the right chords with respect to acknowledging the actions and attitudes that help to make for a good relationship. Groundhog Day also works as a great analogy as to how God works in our lives, thus ignoring the rhetoric that many would like to promote these days that you only get one shot at things in life. Instead God allows us to mess up a thousand times (provided it's genuine!) without turning his back on us. Each time He picks us up, puts us on our feet again and helps us along a little further with those things we struggle with in life. The qualification missing from this film is that without prayer God is only able to guide us through those things in our lives that we just happen to do honestly. Inevitably though, without prayer and good Christian guidance, relying on ourselves to discover what is the honest path to take is a risky and, as Phil Connors discovers, painful process.
