Groundhog Day - Perfect fare for a bus ride

I had the pleasure of traveling to New York City a few weekends ago. I elected to travel by bus, seeing that both airline and train fares were outrageously expensive. Plus, I'm a veteran bus rider and thought I'd spend the day reading. Imagine my surprise when I saw the bucket of headphones while boarding my 10:30am Concord Trailways out of Portland. We were actually going to watch a movie! I was delighted.

It turned out to be the 1993 comedy Groundhog Day starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell. This was a repeat for me but fun nonetheless. Here's the storyline: Bill Murray plays Phil, an egotistical weather man out of Philadelphia come to cover the annual festivities in Punxsatawney, PA. The bad news is that Phil has to keep reliving February 2nd over and over until he gets it right. We're not sure who, exactly, is in charge of that decision but we can refer to our own personal Jesus for that answer.

Watching the way the scenes replay again and again was so funny. I'd see Phil wake up several days in a row, rapid fire, and his facial expressions just cracked me up. Here I am, on the bus, laughing through my ridiculous headphones. It's great to travel anonymously. But it's not all fun and games for Phil as he plunges into the depths of despair. He attempts to commit suicide dozens of times to no avail. Somehow, and I'm not clever enough to figure this out, the movie makes light of this serious topic without being callous about it.

Phil realizes his goal in life is getting into Andie's pants, and works towards that end. This results in several humorous face slapping scenes. He just doesn't get it! I tried to figure out approximately how long it was taking Phil to make this introspective journey. And it seemed like YEARS! Damn. I would go insane.

Groundhog Day is a perfect Twilight Zone theme made into a really funny movie. Before I knew it the credits were up as we rolled into Boston. It made for a very quick trip!