Ruben Bolling appreciates how Groundhog Day rejects our normal assumptions about romance:
How will this movie end if not with the moral of Redemption Through Romantic Love? Not necessarily trying to win Rita's love, but trying to become a better person who would deserve her love, [Phil] resolves to improve himself and help others. He learns piano and ice sculpture. He does good deeds, saving people he knows are about to suffer mishaps, or worse. He talks to townspeople not out of desperate, aloof boredom, but because he genuinely likes them. … That a commercial movie like this could somehow flirt with and then explicitly reject the idea that romantic love alone is all you need — instead using its metaphor to show that a connection to community and service are critical components to a fulfilling life — was beyond a Twilight-Zone level shock for me.
Previous Dish on the classic comedy here and here and a sweet interview with Bill Murray here.
The Dish 