WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS

The movie title could have been "how to turn into a decent human being, by being trapped in a time paradox".

Harold Ramis 1993's Groundhog Day is one of the comedies that's able to transcend time, and become an instant classic.

The plot is simply one of the most brilliant ever writtend for its genre, and it's an interesting, unique variation on the often abused theme of time paradoxes.

Imagine how your life could evolve if, every morning, instead of living a new day, you would wake up and live again and again the same day, where everythings except you always evolves in the exact same way, everyday, forever.
Well, this is what happens, in the movie, to the main character, Phil (Bill Murray).
Not only is he forced to live the same day over and over, but this happens to him in a moment of space and time that he really hates.
Phil is an arrogant and obnoxious meteorologist, and every year his TV network sends him out to the small village of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, to witness an old local tradition, the Groundhog Day of the title, linked to the weather evolution of the following weeks.
This is a job he hates doing, he strives in every way to do it as quickly as possible and to leave the village, only to discover that, not only he cannot leave the village, but neither he can leave Groundhog Day!
Every morning, in fact, at 6.00 am (the alarm clock scene, turning everyday from 5.59 to 6.00, is one of the movie's highlights), he wakes up and the day it's ALWAYS February 2, Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney.
This is where Phil's drama begins, and every movie viewer fun also begins.
Phil evolution throughout the movie, as the number of groundhog days he is obliged to live again and again multiplies, is in fact absolutely hilarious, full of great comic ideas, one after the other.

Bill Murray delivers one of the most enjoying, brilliant performances of his long career, and you cannot avoid to start loving his character, Phil, that slowly undergoes a series of phases: from disbielief for what is happening to him, to despair, to complete madness, until the final, positive and total redemption of his human nature.

Among all the phases, the suicidal one is probably the most hilarious of the entire movie, as Phil tries to escapes from his time paradox by committing suicide in any possible way, one after the other, only to find himself, immediately after, always waking up in his same Punxsutawney bed, at the same time, at the same radio sound over and over.
Sonny and Cher's "I Got You Babe", the music coming from the radio every morning, starts to make you laugh only at its sound, during the movie.

A mention must be finally done of the acting performance from former top model Andie Macdowell: not only she is incredibly beautiful, but her empathy shines through during all the scenes where she is present in the movie.

In small words, a great, genial comedy, a real all time classic!

"Chance of departure today"? :)

JakeBlues