Groundhog Day for Groundhog Day (story breakdown)

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

It’s one of my favorite films, 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 think there’s a lot more going on with this image. Those are very activeclouds. I would even say they’re scheming. Yes, I’m from Berkeley, and this may be some over anthropomorphizing on my part (or possibly some sort…