Review – Groundhog Day

It’s hard for a movie like this to avoid being swallowed by its own concept. An obnoxious weatherman (Bill Murray, who probably actually is an obnoxious weatherman in an alternate reality somewhere) is forced to cover the annual groundhog festivities in Punxsutawney. He’s rude to everyone and has a wretched day. Then he wakes up the next morning only to find that it’s the title date once again and he has to live the whole day over. And over. And over. Before our reluctant hero learns his lesson in the final frames, he goes through every imaginable variation on how the day could have gone, from unsuccessful attempts to sleep with his producer (Andie MacDowell) to successful – however temporary – efforts to kill himself and take the town groundhog with him. Though they don’t do anything particularly brilliant with the concept, the endless variations alone are enough to keep things moderately interesting most of the way through. Mildly amusing