A case can be made that Groundhog Day is the best movie of the last 20 years. I know at first blush that doesn’t seem like a reasonable thing to say. But the more you think about the movie, the more you realize is in it and the more it affects you. I saw it in the theater when it came out and enjoyed it as a well-done fluff comedy. But the more you see it the deeper it affects you. In fact it was the center of a minor squabble in a Museum of Modern Art film series on God in films. The squabble wasn’t over this fluff comedy being included in the films alongside Ingmar Bergman, among others, but the squabble was over who would write the movie up in the film series catalog. You see almost every religion wanted to be able to write it up. But what is it in this little movie about a man who keeps reliving the same day over and over that has fascinated so many religious leaders?

The basic plot of the movie is well known. Bill Murray plays Phil, a weatherman who goes to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania to cover the Groundhog Day ceremony. He takes along with him a goofy camera man (Chris Elliot) and Rita, a sunny producer who deigns to put up with him (Andie MacDowell). After the ceremony, Phil tries to leave town, but it’s snowed in and they are forced to spend the night back in Punxsutawney. When Phil wakes up the next morning, it’s Groundhog Day all over again, but no one notices except him. Phil is forced, for some unknown reason, to relive the same day over and over again.

First Phil tries being bad. He seduces women, steals money and tries to commit suicide over and over again. They he decides to seduce Rita and learns french poetry, how to play the piano and everything that Rita likes. But she knows, deep down, that he doesn’t mean it and rejects him over and over again. At this points, Phil thinks he’s a god. Not The God, as he points out, but a person who’s been around so long that he knows everything.

Then Phil finds a homeless man who’s dying and takes him to the hospital. But the man dies. So Phil spends every rebirth trying to save the homeless man and can never save him. He then decides that he will save everyone else in town. And spends so much time doing good that he actually turns into a good person who Rita falls for.

Buddhists see Phil’s continuing cycle as a series of rebirths until he gains spiritual enlightenment. Rabbis see Phil as a person who becomes good by doing mitzvahs (good deeds) and doing the good deeds turns him into a good person. Christians see the Groundhog Day as a Christ allegory with either the Groundhog or Phil playing the resurrected figure. The New York Times article about the film series does a wonderful job of showing how each religion sees the movie as a influenced by its teachings.

So enjoy the movie as a well made funny Bill Murray comedy. But also let yourself look below the surface and enjoy the deeper meanings of it as well. Highly recommended