Groundhog Day

So, I was looking through the Magical Realism Movie List I made for myself and #17 Groundhog Day, a 1993 film starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell and directed by Harold Ramis. This was back when Bill Murray was "young" and considered romantic love interest material.  Now, he's FDR which is still pretty awesome. I can't wait to see that movie.

Now, this movie is what I initially thought about when I considered the description of Magical Realism. Which is funny because I saw it when I was in Freshmen Religion at Chaminade-Julienne Catholic High School.

Why would a movie about a tradition steeped in pagan beliefs be shown in a Catholic school?

Simple, because it is the typical Bill Murray movie about conversion of character. It even follows the format:

1. A guy is a jerk, asshole, son of a bitch, greedy, whatever.
2. Something inexplicable happens. It's usually funny and he makes a lot of funny faces.
3. Jerk is forced to change his way or rethink his life due to the inexplicable thing. Sometimes love is involved.
4. Jerk changes his behavior and life around and wins the girl.

In this case, the inexplicable thing is that the main character lives the same day over and over and over again. It's never explained why. He's a jerk. He keeps reliving his days even after he kills himself... multiple times. He gets to know the town and pay more attention to people. He even discovers this little thing called empathy. In the end, he wins the heart of the main female character. He wakes up the next day with her in his bed and all is right with the world again especially since the main character is no longer dis-likable.

How is this magical realism?

Well, other than the situation the "magic" creates, it's never explained and it's not exactly the focus. The focus is this poor guy who's days keep repeating over and over and over again and there's nothing he can do about it! The focus is what do you do when you have an endless amount of the same twenty-four hours. The guy learns to play piano. He goes around doing stuff you would never do just because you could. He steals money! He has one night stands the girls will never remember because they didn't happen.

It's the typical fantasy.

What would it take to make someone horrible and repugnant into a good person who cares about other people?

However, it's in our world, a small town. It's during a national holiday that we are recognizing today.

And it stars Bill Murray!

Personally, I kind of prefer Scrooged though...