Celebrate Groundhog Day with “Groundhog Day”
Groundhog Day is one of my favorite holidays — odd, I know, but since Feb. 2 is my birthday, I have more affinity for it than most. And “Groundhog Day” is one of my favorite movies, perhaps for the same reason.
I try to watch the movie, which stars Bill Murray as a narcissistic weatherman, each year on my birthday. Directed by Harold Ramis, the movie is one of the top comedies of the 1990s, and arguably, of all time.
Phil Connors (Murray), a Pittsburgh weatherman, finds the annual trek he must make to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, for a Groundhog Day telecast to be the height of provincialism. A blizzard — which the arrogant Phil predicted would miss the area — causes him to be stuck in Punxsutawney for an extra night.
However, when he wakes up the next morning, he finds it’s Feb. 2 all over again. No one remembers living the previous day. And each morning, he is forced to relive Groundhog Day over and over again.
Trying to fight off boredom and ennui, Phil does everything from attempting suicide to learning the piano to trying to save a homeless man fated to die.
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