20 Jun 2007

Movie review - Groundhog Day

Released in 1993, the movie did pretty well both with the critics and the hoi polloi. Last night I managed to watch it on Sony Pix (God bless them for being a free-to-air channel). The movie is very nicely done. Phil Conners (Bill Murray) a cynical TV station weatherman goes to cover Groundhog Day. He is accompanied by his producer Rita (Andy McDowell) and cameraman Larry. Phil unfortunately gets stuck in Groundhog Day and is unable to move to the next day. Every morning it is February 2nd and he wakes to his radio alarm clock at 6 a.m., meets the same strangers and lands up at the Groundhog Day celebration. He is alarmed at first. Then he decides to exploit the situation. After this he becomes despondent and tries to kill himself. Eventually he learns to appreciate life in general and, as they say, stops to smell the roses. He learns new skills, meets all the townspeople and gets to know them and saves people about to die in accidents on February 2nd

At this point, I fell asleep in front of the TV and had horrible dreams about being stuck in the same day. Luckily this morning, I woke up in a new day and also figured out from the Internet that Phil does manage to escape the time loop when unconquerable, irresistible and kindhearted Rita falls in love with him.

Bill Murray is brilliant and Andy McDowell is charming. The movie is clearly meant to make one think about how your life is being lead and if there are some corrections to it long overdue. The kind of thoughts that occur to you if you are not trying to fight off sleep while watching the movie. However, as I said I am glad I woke up into a new day...Or did I? Lets see
1. The alarm clock went off at 7 a.m. - check
2. Left for office at 9 a.m. through the beach road - check
3. Radio city played Scorpions - check
4. Computer took 5 minutes to boot up - check
Ye God!

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