Groundhog Day (1993)

* * * *

A funny film with a good and imaginative plot and it uses Bill Murray’s wonderfully dry comedy to its full effect to incorporate numerous laughs. For such an odd premise it manages to stay oddly realistic and you can see the progression of the lead character throughout.

The best thing about this film is that while remaining humorous Murray’s acting skill also manages to display how tedious and terrible his character’s life became during this time. It has a very well thought out scenario of how one might spend their time if they could perfect their day. The film is edited together well as well as you see how many days pass but do not get bored with the monotony as each day is cut to at the right point.

Unfortunately the relationship between Murray and MacDowell is not believable, MacDowell’s character is pretentious and quite unlikable while Murray’s is arrogant and, although he is meant to go through a bildungsroman style change, the characters are not compatible and it seems as though the writer has just forced them  together. It seems the creators focused on getting big names together and this hinders the plot as their relationship is a major part of this film.