Groundhog Day: Escaping the Narcissistic Loop 

“No man is an island,” goes the famous poem by John Donne. In Groundhog Day, the 1993 comedy starring Bill Murray, this maxim is put to the test. The movie affirms what we all know to be true: we cannot be happy on our own, but must rely on others. 

In the movie, Phil Connors, played by Murray, is sent along with his crew, his producer Rita Hanson and Larry his cameraman, to cover the Groundhog Day celebration in Punxsutawney, PA. He suffers severely from delusions of grandeur, although he is just a low-level weatherman. He is arrogant and self-centered, bullying and belittling his crew and the townspeople. Then, inexplicably, when he goes to sleep that night, he wakes up on Groundhog Day. Again, and again, and again. He at first revels in this power, using it to do whatever he wants: to eat everything on a diner menu, to commit crimes, and to seduce attractive women in the town. He spends a long time trying to seduce Rita, but fails and gives up. He enjoys his power for a while, but ultimately despairs of being trapped in time and repeatedly attempts to die to exit the loop. 

Finally, Phil has an encounter with Rita that alters his course. He convinces her of the time loop, and she tells him to look at it as a gift rather than a curse. From there, he slowly begins to help the people of the town, leaving behind his selfishness. Eventually many “days” later, he shows Rita around the town and takes her to the charity ball at night. All throughout the day, the townspeople repeatedly come up to Phil and thank him for the many ways he’s helped them. Seeing how deeply Phil has changed from the man she knew on February 1, she falls in love with him, and February 3 finally rolls around. 

Phil tried to die before he tried to be nice to people. The method of living that he had clung to previously, one in which other people were mere objects of entertainment for him, proved to be unsustainable. The power that he was given, the ability to live the same day over and over again, exacerbates his feelings of superiority over other people, and he develops a god complex. He follows his narcissistic personality to its logical conclusion, where he is the only “real” person surrounded by a lot of nobodies. In the long term, however, this did not make him happy. Instead, he became miserable and hopeless, locked entirely within his own mind. 

Humans are social animals, made for relationships with one another. These relationships cannot, however, be carried out on the terms that Phil envisions. Using other people for your own gratification, with no regard to their well-being, is not a healthy human relationship. Even if you amuse yourself for a while, with enough time you will end up like Phil. 

The only way out, the way out that Phil finds, is seeing the value in other people. The process moves little by little. One “day,” Phil decides to help out the homeless man standing on the corner, whom he had previously ignored. He learns that the man dies every evening on Groundhog Day, and tries in vain to discover what the problem is. This is the first time that Phil has acknowledged the value of other people’s existence, and from here he has a total conversion. He sets out to help everyone in the town. 

Phil abandons the shallow, vindictive, self-important pursuit of “popularity” that defined him on February 1. By giving himself in service to the townspeople, he not only improves their lives, but also improves his own. The townspeople love him for what he’s done, and Rita and Larry, who hated Phil for his constant putdowns, have a newfound respect and admiration for their boss. Phil himself benefits from this change, no longer being the grumpy, caustic person that everyone hated. He is happy, loved, and surrounded by people he cares about and who care about him.