THROWBACK: Where did tomorrow go?

Groundhog Day (Columbia Pictures, 1993)

Cast: Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell, Chris Elliott, Stephen Tobolowsky

Director: Harold Ramis

Running time: 101 minutes

The legend

On February 2 every year in the United States and Canada, Groundhog Day is celebrated. Legend has it that if the groundhog (a rodent from the squirrel family) emerges from its hole and sees its shadow, it will return underground because that means there are six more weeks of winter. People gather from far and wide every year to witness this festival, with Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania being the most popular destination (crowds have numbered in the 40,000 region) every year.

The movie

The town serves as the venue for this déjà vu themed comedy starring the quirky Bill Murray. He plays Phil Connors, a bitter, obnoxious, sarcastic and egotistic weatherman for a Pittsburgh news station. For years, he has travelled to Punxsutawney to cover Groundhog Day and is anything but thrilled to be going again. With his new producer, Rita (Andie MacDowell) and trusty cameraman, Larry (Chris Elliott) in tow, he sets off for the little town to get a weather forecast from a supposedly superior weatherman - the groundhog, known as Punxsutawney Phil (yes, the pesky rodent shares his name).

A blizzard prevents the crew from leaving Punxsutawney and they have to stay at least one more night. Connors wakes up at 6am and in his usual sarcastic manner criticizes the radio jockeys for playing the previous day's tape as it is the same broadcast from 24 hours earlier, with "I Got You Babe" still playing in the background. However, he realises there is a problem when they proclaim that it's "Groundhog Day" which was the day before.

Déjà view

He looks out the window, the same truck that drove by the day before drives by again; he steps into the hallway and the same bespectacled gentleman has the same conversation from the day before; the inn keeper runs the same conversation as well; he bumps into the hyper Ned Ryerson from high school in the streets once again (who informs the retreating Connors to "watch out for that first step, it's a doozy") and at Gobblers' Knob, the site of the groundhog sighting, his crew is once again waiting for him to record. Once again prevented from leaving due to the blizzard, he goes to bed (after the same cold shower) and at 6am, it's the same day all over again.

The victim No other actor comes to mind to pull off the varied emotions - shock horror, confusion, excitement, deceit - that ensue after Connors comes to terms with his recurring-day existence. Murray's bland expressions and other facial contortions masterfully portray an initially scared and troubled man, who then sees the advantages of knowing the future before it happens (be it a 24 hour span), before eventual depression and self pity set in. Like so many other movies, this one finds a humorous way to teach life lessons on compassion for others and self improvement, familiar territory for Murray who also played a modern day Ebenezer Scrooge in the movie Scrooged.

If tomorrow comes

In Groundhog Day, he gets thrown in jail and attempts multiple suicides (toaster in bathtub, driving off a cliff, jumping from a building) hoping for a different ending but his day always starts the same. He memorises the day's events and begins to use them to his advantage; robbing a money van, getting laid but most importantly (to him anyway), getting to know Rita better, just so he can sleep with her... at first.

Finally realising the power he has to do good, he changes his ways (saves a choking man, helps a homeless man, assists three elderly ladies with tyre trouble) and eventually realises that doing good is the most rewarding route to follow (a likely story, eh?) And of course an intrigued Rita falls in love with him (she buys him at an auction), spends the night and at 6am the following day, it is finally February 3 with Rita by his side.

Where art thou, oh bush rat?

So, from local folklore comes this international feel good comedy with a warm underlay, even after Punxsutawney Phil predicted six more wintry weeks. Maybe somewhere deep in Nigeria, Kafanchan Karimu comes out once a year to announce how many more weeks of rain we will have. If this does indeed exist, and there's a bush rat somewhere that can predict the weather, someone write Nkem Owoh a script... or not!