The obvious theme in this movie is repetition. In our text, the author describes repetition like so, “Like order and duration, then, repetition serves not only as a means of relaying story information, but also as a signal that a particular event has a meaning or significance that should be acknowledged in our interpretation and analysis.” With movies like Groundhog Day, where the movie repeats the same day again and again throughout the whole movie, it can sometimes to be difficult to see the importance within the repetition. There are even instances where the day changes so greatly that I would need to remind myself that it was the same day but it has just taken a drastic turn. I felt as though my interpretation and analysis of Groundhog Day was clouded by my lack of interest in the film and the not so obvious message of “he is an asshole and when he starts being nice his life will continue”. Don’t get me wrong, I love a typical asshole that gets what he deserves after multiple failed attempts but this movie just did not do it for me. The repetition was annoying and his progress was so prolonged that I was impatiently waiting for the movie to end.
Now I cannot just spend my whole review bashing this film so I will offer some different approaches that, in my mind, would have made this film way more enjoyable. Instead of Murray reliving the same day, he would progress onto the new day but some mishap or regression back into his old ways would leave him stuck within the new day causing him to repeat it until a different achievement was made. This of course would happen after all of his reckless and inevitable actions like stealing money, having a speed chase with the police, and all of the other ridiculous things he did. Come on, there is no way we all wouldn’t have done the same thing.
The overall message I received from this film was that your life won’t progress until you are “your best”. “Your best” being the socially constructed idea that nice people who are genuine with selfless intentions will not be stuck spending days reliving their mistakes. Murray attempted to act genuine throughout the film and was not successful progressing onto the new day but when he accepted his fate that change may never come he wakes up to the highly anticipated next day.