Groundhog Day is a 1993 American film. A weatherman, Phil, is tasked with covering the traditional Groundhog Day in a small town in the middle of winter. He finds himself trapped in a time loop, forcing him to relive the day. He is accompanied by Rita.
Groundhog Day is now considered by many critics and journalists to be one of the best films of all time. Despite its relative commercial success, it remains a famous and often-mentioned comedy.
Phil discovers that this February 2nd Groundhog Day, which he so detests because it is in the middle of winter in a small country town, is repeating itself. He goes through different phases: surprise, then anger, despair, resignation, an attempt at understanding, and finally love and fulfillment. These different phases correspond to the evolution of human consciousness in the face of the absurdity and frustration of repetition and meaninglessness.
This time loop scenario is well known in various religious traditions: it recalls Samsara, the cycle of successive lives in Eastern religions. Early Christianity also included the notion of reincarnation. Samsara, for its part, is particularly used to evoke the cycles of lives, deaths, and rebirths that follow and repeat themselves until the follower can achieve liberation, and thus escape this cycle. The goal is therefore to become aware of one’s imprisonment in the womb through one’s incarnation, and to be able to free oneself from it. How? Through individual accomplishment and fulfillment by putting oneself in service. And this is precisely the angle explored in the film.
First of all, the general context of the setting: a remote village, in the middle of winter. This may evoke the incarnation of the soul in matter: a hostile, foreign, and cold environment for the soul that was previously free in the spiritual worlds. Embodiment in matter is often represented as painful and limiting. Everything crystallizes, everything collides with the density and duality of matter. A blizzard prevents the team from returning home, and so they resign themselves to returning to the city to spend another night there. According to various religious and spiritual teachings, between matter and the absolute divine world stands a hostile world, preventing any possible direct and easy return.
After the shock of surprise, and realizing that his actions have no impact because he always wakes up the next day in his bed, the same day, the hero of the film, Phil, will experience different states of consciousness: he will first traverse his shadow by fulfilling his fantasies: he has a string of one-night stands and commits thefts, provocations, and misdeeds. Then, in a headlong flight from negativity, he will commit suicide. He will then attempt to seduce his colleague Rita, who will constantly rebuff his advances despite his numerous attempts, always enriched by his experiences and knowledge.
Despair reigns, a feeling of confinement and helplessness reigns. “One cold winter will be your whole life!” This state of mind strikes us sooner or later in our lives, when we realize our condition as mere mortals. The fact that Rita rejects his advances, even though his feelings for her only grow, may symbolize the entire relationship between spirit and matter. For in ancient teachings, man and woman represented spirit and matter. People, lacking the capacity for abstraction, could not represent abstract concepts like spirit. The teachings used allegories and symbols to convey messages. Rita rejects his advances, despite all his attempts to seduce her, because matter repels spirit. As long as they are not harmonized, matter will always act as a wall of frustration, resistance, and trials.
Phil thinks he is a god. But his inability to save an elderly man, despite his many attempts, makes him aware of his limitations, yet pushes him to humility.
Then comes a turning point in the film. Rita explains to Phil the importance of life. Phil then abruptly changes: he begins to learn poetry. Not to try to seduce Rita, but to sincerely serve the community. He learns the piano, ice sculpting. And he uses his knowledge of every person in the town to help them. Beyond the incomprehension, frustration, anger, and despair, comes the time of transcendence: overcoming, learning, fulfilling oneself through help. And fulfilling oneself.
Each day that passes becomes another step toward his own perfection, his own summit. He perfects himself in the arts, in service to others. Sincerely and freely. The last day becomes, then, his accomplishment, like that of others : everyone he helps is transformed. Rita exclaims “This is the best day of my life!” He triumphs while remaining detached, and ends up spending the night with Rita. Then, upon waking, he realizes it’s February 3rd. He has been able to free himself from the time loop. Accomplishment completes the union of spirit and matter; the latter allows itself to be penetrated and fertilized by the spirit. The cycles of Samsara are broken, the fulfilled soul is freed.
In the last scene, Phil declares to Rita that he wants to settle in the city. Then he adds, “We’re going to rent first.” The triumph over matter, the accomplishment, suddenly makes the world more familiar and easier. But it nonetheless remains foreign to the realm of the spirit.
The film’s Wikipedia page devotes several paragraphs to the philosophical and spiritual aspects of the film: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groundhog_Day_(film)