My favorite snow movie of all time

As you’re reading this, the first big snowfall of the season is about to hit Sweden. It’s almost too good to be true.

Not only is this exactly what we need this time of the year when we start to suffer badly from the light deficiency. It also happened to be the theme our network of film bloggers agreed on writing about this month: snow.

The question was how to handle the topic. For a while I thought about making a list. After all there’s no lack of movies with a lot of snow in them, and when I threw a glance at the list of movies I’ve written about previously, it seemed as if wintery landscapes has a certain attraction to me. Touching the Void, Alive, Frozen River and The Flight of the Eagle all had a ton of snow and ice in them. The Way Back had at least one blizzard. I tried to remember if there was any snow in Winter’s Bone but couldn’t recall it. It was probably just cold.

But then I realized that I shouldn’t make any list, because in the end there is one movie that stands out above all others. Groundhog Day is my favorite snow movie of all time.

In my view a good snow movie shouldn’t only provide snow as a pretty background: it also needs to have an essential part in the story. And you could safely say that Groundhog Day wouldn’t be the film it is if it wasn’t for the blizzard which forces a TV team to stay one more night in a village where they’ve on job, at the dismay of Bill Murray’s arrogant, unlikable weatherman.

Never growing tired
I’ve probably seen Groundhog Day more times than any other movie, but it seems as if I’ll never grow tired of it. Every time I watch it I’m pulled into it.

I enjoy watching Bill Murray’s repeated suicides (this looks weird as I write it down, but it’s not as bad as it sounds). I give out little sighs of delight as he’s getting more and more romantic with Andie MacDowell. And I get a warm and fuzzy feeling in my stomach as I see him slowly, after hundreds or thousands of iterations of the same day evolve into a better, more likeable person.

How cheesy it may sound it always reminds me of how much of the misery we experience in life that actually is self imposed. I’m convinced that we can become happier persons if we start to think a little more about other people and a little less about ourselves, and if we change our view on life from being half empty to half full.

I think one of the reasons why I love Groundhog Day so much and why it still holds up so well also is that it doesn’t waste time on explaining itself in terms of science and logic. It tosses out the question “what if…?” and rightfully it puts its trust into that the viewers have enough of imagination and curiosity to be able to suspend their disbeliefs and just enjoy the ride.

Groundhog Day (Harold Ramis, US 1993) My rating: 5/5

This post is a part of a blogathon run by the Swedish film blogging network Filmspanarna. The theme was “snow” Here’s a list of links to the other participants:

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Filmitch
Flmr filmblogg
Fripps filmrevyer
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