I first watched Groundhog Day about six months ago, deep into the pandemic. Due to the nature of quarantine and my general environment, I felt like I was stuck in a bit of a time loop myself, unable to meaningfully progress forward. However when I watched Groundhog Day, I marvelled at the simplicity of its proposed solution and the gamification of Phil’s actions. I’m not saying it pulled me out of my slump, but I was certainly inspired by the movie’s main moral message and watching Phil figure out how to “beat the game”.
I want to talk about the structure of the film, and my reading of it as essentially a game Phil plays. Once Phil enters the time loop, his initial goal is to figure out how to end the loop; this he tries by attempting to stay up all night, attempting to leave Puxatawney, and suicide. He explores the rules of the “game”, finding that he is unable to stay up past 5 am and that dying will bring him right back to 8 am in Punxsutawney Pennsylvania on Groundhog Day. He also discovers that the events in the game (NPC actions, so to speak) are also always the same day to day; a true loop, independent of the actions he takes the days before. After exhausting his options at escaping the loop, Phil turns his goals into (uncomfortably) pursuing women, in typical 90’s male lead fashion, taking advantage of the time loop to gather information and tailor parts of his personality to their preferences. The movie ties Phil’s romantic interest in Rita into the secret of “beating the game”.
I don’t consider Rita to truly be a character in the movie, but rather the concept of a moral centre in the game. Not only does Phil need to match his personality traits unto her liking, he needs to genuinely become the type of person she approves of and admires; only after he achieves this does the loop finally break. When he stops trying to win her over or view her as an objective to take, Phil finally evolves into a form deserving of moving on from the loop.
