By Karen - 29 July 2021
Phil is a TV station who broadcasts weather forecasts, and is also a public figure, who can be familiar with the audience. But other than that, this job didn't bring him more. He doesn't like his job, he still doesn't like his life, he doesn't like the people around him, and in the end he doesn't have a good impression of himself. This has nothing to do with work. The key is "character problem". He hates everything around him, which makes him an unpleasant person. In fact, this state of his should be easy for us to understand: he is not interested in everything, and can live impatiently and live day after day.
Unfortunately for Phil, God wants to punish him. The day before the Groundhog, he went to a small town to report on this traditional festival the next day. Because of the snowstorm the next day, they were trapped in the small town for another night. On the third day Phil woke up and was surprised to find that he had returned to the "Groundhog Day" the day before, so he started the same day in which he kept cycling.
In the repeated "Groundhog Day", Phil's performance can be divided into four stages. 1. First of all, this sudden change made him at a loss, and the incredibleness of the incident also made him very scared. In addition, he didn't have a good feeling for this small town. He just wanted to go home early, but he was stuck in the small town in such an inexplicable and strange way. It was really painful and lost. He began to ask the people he met, what would you do if this happened? In the end he got an exciting answer: "Do whatever you want." 2. So he enters his second stage: "Do whatever you want" without remembering the consequences, anyway, he wakes up and starts again. For some time, he has been well aware of what is going to happen this day and the people he meets, so he can easily get or satisfy his desires: food, money, women. He became interested in the beauty producer Rita who came with him. Through day-by-day exploration and frustration, he learned about her hobbies and habits, and then pretended to be someone who liked her exactly and won her favor. It's just that she is not a "random woman", and every time she tricks her into going to bed, she always ends with a slap. This is probably what is called "love is impossible to pretend". 3. Phil enters his third stage: the serious loss after the carnival. He didn't understand why he couldn't get her no matter what way or means. Severe frustration, coupled with the painful mood of being trapped on the same day, he decided to end it all with death. The funny thing is that no matter how he died, he always woke up on time at the old time and place every time. He couldn't stand it anymore, he confessed to Rita, he asked her for help, he wanted her to stay with him all the time to see what would happen when he didn't sleep. But when he saw her lying tired and couldn't help but fall asleep, he didn't wake her up, and went to sleep quietly. Wake up again, business as usual. 4. The final harvest. Phil completely dispelled the hope of ending the day. Maybe it was inspired by Rita's kindness and sincerity, maybe it was a self-contained insight, or maybe it was a helpless workaround. Phil began to make full use of his inexhaustible time to enrich himself, help others, and change in the interaction. Positive and enthusiastic. In one day, he can become the most popular person in this small town. At the same time, he really fell in love with Rita, and Rita was also moved by this completely different Phil.
This repetitive day occupies most of the film. Because of the excellent grasp of the rhythm and focus, there is no repetition and boring sense. It clearly depicts the protagonist's changing trajectory, and at the same time, it is full of fun and reflects The charm of the image.
This longest day ends in the morning accompanied by Rita. Excited, he decided to settle here with Rita, a town that started to hate him and gave him a rebirth.
When the unchanging and boring life abstracts into the same monotonous repetition of the same day, the problem becomes prominent and quite dazzling. Growing up in impatience, growing old in loneliness, complaining after tearing off the calendar, finding excuses in complaining, living in excuses, living in blasphemy of life. All kinds of things in real life, needless to say, everyone will have their own experience and emotions. Phil's experience, his four stages, that is, people's different attitudes towards life. Some people are panicked facing the front, some give up hope and consume the future, some want to change but are painful for not finding the answer, and some others seize all the happiness they can draw in life.
Life is not all under my control, day after day, it is impossible to have freshness and excitement every day. So the key lies in the individual being in the heart, rather than blindly insisting on the outside world to do what one wants, or disgusting everything early. It's all the same life, why not let yourself and the people around you live a little happier. Full and healthy, even if you do the same thing every day, every day will be brand new.
Phil in the movie can be slowly searched in the "pause", but in reality, decades are also a rush, will you give yourself a chance?
