Groundhog Day for Groundhog Day

As the classic It’s a Wonderful Life is to Christmas, the classic Groundhog Day is to, well, Groundhog Day.

It’s one of my favorite films and one of the best teaching movies I know: with an unlikable protagonist who goes through a major character arc because of the crucible of love (and with help from the weather gods). A time loop story, an alternate reality story, and a high-concept comedy, it’s also a male redemption story which manages to hit all the right love story beats while at the same time completely satirizing those beats, starting with the concept of the Magical Day.

I see new things in the film every time I watch. And I’m not the first to suggest it, but it’s probably the official film of coronavirus viewing, as like Phil, we might just be trapped until WE learn from our own confinement and repetition imposed by — the virus gods?

Let’s take a look at the first act.

Groundhog Day

Written by Danny Rubin and Harold Ramis, Directed by Harold Ramis

ACT I, SEQUENCE ONE

OPENING IMAGE: This is one of my favorite, sly opening images of all time. It’s a shot of very fast moving clouds in a blue sky, with some sort of carnival music underneath. Now, this is a natural image for the story, which is about a weatherman. But I…