Groundhog Day and the Pursuit of True Happiness

When weatherman Phil Connors (Bill Murray) realises that there is no tomorrow for him and therefore no consequences, he does what many of us would: eats, drinks and smokes his way through the day, before taking on more immoral activities such as theft, violence, and conning women into sex.  Prior to the recurring Groundhog day, Connors is cynical, self-centred and arrogant, and furthers his own ego and self-importance by constantly putting others down.  However, it is also alluded to that he is stuck in a proverbial rut with his work and presumably his life when he mentions that it will be the fourth year in a row where he must cover the Groundhog day celebrations in the small town of Punxsutawney.  A time and place he does not hide that he hates.  It is ironic, then, that he becomes stuck in a rut of time and forced to live the same hated celebration with the same hated people over and over again with no escape. 

Connors quickly grows tired of his self indulgence and hedonism; possibly he finds no thrill or reason in it if there are no consequences.  Or, as Socrates relates hedonism to a leaky container that constantly needs refilling (Kupfer, 2005), he eventually finds there are no more instant pleasures to be had during that one recurring day.  Finding no more point to his binges, he sets his sights on his producer, Rita (Andie MacDowell).  Despite using the recurring days to gather information to try and be the perfect man for Rita he finds that he cannot bed her, no matter what the situation or how happy or perfect her day has been.  Connors fails to realise that even though he is trying to change himself to suit Rita, it is still ultimately for his gain and pleasure, not hers, as she will just forget the next morning.  As the audience sees the final slap Rita gives Phil, as she continues to figure out the ‘perfect day’ was just an attempted sexual conquest, Connors loses hope and falls into despair.  He feels there is no point to a life he cannot control and decides the only option left for him is suicide. 

Connors successfully kills himself over and over again, but continues to wake up each morning at 6:00am.  At this point, self-indulgence and death have lost all meaning.  It is only after an honest talk and quality time with Rita that he realises that there is more to life than pleasing himself.  Connors then begins a quest to assist as many people as he can using his immense accumulated knowledge of that one day.  He finds pleasure in self-fulfilment and bettering the lives of others, eventually leading to the true and honest love between himself and Rita.  

Kupfer states that happiness cannot be pursued directly by personal pleasures and hedonism (2005).  As we saw with Connors, this only leads to emptiness and despair.  “Happiness comes about only as the indirect result of realising our human potential in activity that is intrinsically valuable,” (Kupfer, 2005, pp. 285).  For Connors, these intrinsically valuable activities are long term projects that require study and attention, such as playing the piano, ice sculpting and reading literature.  The film suggests that focusing on long-term artistic pleasures and developing knowledge instead of the short-term pleasures of sex and food benefits the soul and helps maintain a healthy mental state (Falzon, 2007).  Plato believes that discovering a good life is a rational task that requires thought and planning (Falzon, 2007).  Phil Connors ultimately achieved just this, by going through several phases of self-discovery before finding the best method of living.  

References

Falzon, C. (2007). Philosophy goes to the movies (2^nd ed.). New York: Routledge

Kupfer, J. (2005). Virtue and happiness in Groundhog Day. In T. E. Wartenberg & A. Curran (Eds.), The philosophy of film: Introductory texts and readings (pp. 284-294). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.