The Ontology of Modern Trapped Routine

If tomorrow is today, what is that going to be? Contrast to The Truman Show, Groundhog Day presents a scenario similar to that everybody is drunk except the protagonist. Waking up at six in a rural hotel with the music of same notes every morning, Phil suddenly finds himself falling into a weird recycle – his time stops at the Groundhog Day and repeats itself again and again. First his reaction is to do whatever he wants, but as he comes to realize that Groundhog Day is consistently fixed on him. Anxious and hopeless, he tries all means to kill himself. However, as the clock goes up to six again, he would be still waking up in the same bed and listening to that dull music. Eventually, he suits himself into a new life of fully living the repeated day, then the today finally becomes tomorrow. The advantage of fictional movie is to bring out a not reality-based issue and to discuss the existed problem in reality. The filming skills, plot procedures and thought-provoking themes serve as a whole, symbolizing Phil as a characteristic of modern life in which men tend to be much full of themselves and can not touch the deep soul of interpreting connection to their own being and relating to the boarder world.
The movie utilizes a metaphor and constructs a time dimension in which the groundhog appears everyday to see its shadow, while he wakes up everyday to see his one-day life. At certain periods in one’s life, the trace of predestination would emerge itself and this movie conveys the message through a dramatic way. I like the setting of the reappearing day - It is not the day that Phil wishes to be the day at the beach with his girlfriend, nor the day of him dying in bed. The ordinariness of this very single day has the most power to demonstrate to the audience that much more than a process from birth to death, life is a procedure for one to gradually feel its existence and meanings. We can not construct four mutually perpendicular lines, but the filming techniques provide us the fourth dimension - time. As in the movie, time is a constant while length, width and height can be stretched in multi-direction. In other words, Phil extends his life in the limited time space through his changes from an arrogant reporter to the most popular man in the town. He is no longer self-centered, but involves himself into the society and contributes to others. He changed, but how? People generally think that life progresses form past to present then to future, here Phil experiences a whole new way that he lives in the past, present and future at the same time. By doing this, the movie producer inserts a familiar feeling into the audience’s mind that they are also fixed in a routine that appears in their daily lives.

As the routine of plot keeping repeating itself from every morning at six, the stage of Phil’s mind keeps progressing. I identify four stages along with Phil’s changing. The first stage is when he finds that no tomorrow means no results come out of his consequences, so he neglects rules and laws indulging him to avoid his responsibilities. It is the stage that he liberates himself from his individual ideology and starts an ego-based way of thinking. The second stage, Phil uses this regular pattern in his life for his convenient to chase Rita. He comes to realize that he can actually take advantage of the weird phenomenon. However, in the third stage, Phil finds out he can not beat the time and every problem solved is the new problem that coming again. Acting and memorizing can neither improve his life quality nor clarifying the meaning of his existence so that he tries to suicide. Through a coincidence Phil starts to notice the needs of others and experiences the internal beauty of life. He enters the fourth stage through which he progressively improves his mind and spirit. The sudden retention of time settles Phil’s heart down and backs his life to the origin, for him to proceed life with a brand new worldview.

What if there is no tomorrow? The movie delivers its theme about decision-making through a ridicule but profound scene – How you choose to live a single day of your live decides how you are going to spend the rest of your life. You can act like the Phil who just enters the repetitive Groundhog Day, proposing to a stranger, robbing bank and racing cars. Because all the promises and consequences lives only today, like the Cinderella that every magic of his behavior disappears at exactly six o』clock. But the marks are branded on him - though the lack of responsibility has brought him much excitement, it can not last long, and he already lost his inner balance. Since everyday is the same, Phi then tends to seek different possibilities toward one subject. He manipulates and optimizes the result of every consequence, but he can never destroy the radio that announces the starting of his day. Since his fate is unchallengeable, Phil simply switches his attitude. He gives all his money to the beggar in the street, he brings coffee and donut to his coworkers and gets there on time, and he starts to learn ice sculpture and piano. His life re-shines. Half-empty and half-full mean the same, it’s the attitude that matters. You can spend your time complaining and day-dreaming, or you can introspect and examine yourself and then start working on it and improve yourself. Changing makes a difference; it has the Butterfly Effect that makes every single day a different day.

In the end, Phil talks of 「anything different is good」. When he realizes that his existence is relating to others, he discovers the value and authenticity of his life. Life will continue, but not boringly repeat itself for Phil has already learned how to live in the repeat and how to feel his own being. Life to him is no longer a purchasing of things he desires, but becomes for him to challenge the limitation of every single day. Taoism has the saying that the harder you go after something, the easier you will lose it. When you understand its origin and outcome, it will come to you naturally. The most impressive scene appeals to me in this movie is when Phil sends the old beggar to the hospital and the nurse has sentenced his death. The nurse told Phil that 「sometimes people just die」 but he insists 「not today」. Phil has done everything for the old man to be full, warm and with dignity in his last day of life. From then on, Phil helps a certain person in the certain time of the day. Being heavily needed, Phil touches the weight of life. However, as mentioned in the first paragraph, the movie builds the imagery of Phil through the filming skills, plot construction and theme revealing that picture Phil as a modern symbol. There are hundreds and thousands of 「Phil」 out there in the real daily life, because they can not find the passion and fun of the fixed routine. Their cognition is only lingering on the level of conception, and no matter of their status they fail to appreciate the connection between an individual and a boarder world. The critical point for Phil to enter the fourth stage is his sympathetic toward others. Actually his ontology grows out of his relating to the universal interconnection. Sensitive to other’s needs, feelings and past experience, we come to realize how people become what they are today. By doing so, we not only adjust our horizon to absorb a bigger picture, but we also come to appreciate the delicacy of life and further respect the humanity. During this process, we become mature and attain inner satisfaction. However, these have nothing to do with property, status or reputation, but a consistent determination to make a difference regards to the steady environment. We live every day once - one day, but a thousand lives varied by our attitude and decisions that persevere to be better. Everyday counts.

When I was watching the movie, the line 「life is like a box of chocolate, you never know what you're gonna get next」 keeps pumping into my mind. For Phil, he knows that box of chocolate well – the shape, the smell, the texture and the flavor.