Spoiler Warning – spoilers ahead for Groundhog Day, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Count of Monte Cristo, Mad Men and Jerry Maguire

Groundhog Day – “Well It’s Groundhog Day…Again”

Perhaps the film with the most new beginnings ever, weatherman Phil finds himself trapped in the same day over and over again. After initial shock he realises the rare opportunity he has in essentially doing whatever he wants, there are no consequences to his actions. Phil goes through wild hedonism, sadness, absolute despair and eventually improves his circumstances by doing things for others, in not putting himself first. And whilst the audience isn’t meant to think he does this to break out of his loop (but rather because being a good person is inherently worthwhile) it does end his groundhog day. It is a stunning film of comedic brilliance, an amazing idea and genuine soul-searching reflection.

Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind – “Please Let Me Keep This Memory, Just This One”

One of the great films of all time this is also a great lesson on how to get a fresh start – wipe your memory. The films follows the relationship(s) of Joel and Clem with an unclear narrative structure but we learn that after a difficult period in their relationship, Clem has utilised the services of a special company to have Joel and their relationship wiped from her memory. Not surprisingly Joel decides to do the same thing, however, during the process, Joel realises the mistake he is making and tries desperately to keep the memories. What we come to learn is that Joel and Clem have managed to meet each other after their memory wipes – starting their relationship anew…until they are given the records of their wipes, learning all the frustrations that had developed between them but still deciding to try again/for the first time.

The Count of Monte Cristo – “We Are Kings or Pawns”

It is perhaps an extreme way to do it but a lengthy prison sentence, your loved ones being told of your death and then becoming one of the richest men in the country will help you to a new beginning. Edmond Dantes is falsely imprisoned due to the actions of three men each with a reason to see him harmed, he loses his fiancée, his father dies while he is in prison. He escapes and with knowledge he learned while in prison finds a huge fortune and reinvents himself as the Count of Monte Cristo in order to exact his revenge.

Mad Men – “It Will Shock You How Much It Never Happened”

In many ways Mad Men is the story of one man’s reinvention. Dick Whitman is from a very, very poor background and after an incident in the Vietnam War is able to assume the identity of Don Draper, an officer with better prospects. Of course we don’t learn this in the beginning and the first season slowly explains this. Draper seizes this new opportunity and certainly is successful.

In many ways Mad Men is the story of one woman’s reinvention. Peggy Olson starts as a secretary in an atmosphere of extreme sexism but quickly rises through the company through talent and determination.

In one of the great scenes in all television, Draper visits Olson in hospital. Olsen became pregnant and had a child outside of marriage, which would incur the wrath of 1960s society. Draper tracks down Olsen – who had been his secretary – and convinces her to put this behind her and move on with her life – “it will shock you how much it never happened”.

Jerry Maguire – “I was inspired, and I’m an accountant.”

A greedy and successful sports agent sees the problems of his work and the whole industry and decides to do something about it. Struck with late-night inspiration he writes a mission statement saying how the firm should focus on other things – less money, fewer clients, give their clients better care, not just whatever will make the most money. And this gets him fired, ending up with a single client and a single employee, Dorothy, an accountant who quits with him. Again, it’s as much a fresh start for Dorothy as it is for Jerry, risking everything for a person she barely knows because he’s inspiring.

Also Read: Keanu Reeves: From ‘Bill and Ted’ to ‘Cyberpunk 2077’ – A Cinematic Journey

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Sarah is the maid of honour for her sister’s wedding and as she is very much the black sheep of the family it is not a day she is looking forward to. At the depressing party after the ceremony, she meets the bizarrely dressed (for a wedding ) Nyles who gives a brilliant off the cuff speech that reduces guests to tears with his poignant insights on love. This oddly beguiling figure with seemingly no concern for the consequences of his actions charms Sarah and the two leave the party and after an odd series of events, Sarah follows Nyles into a cave. She wakes up a moment later but is back at the hotel, waking up on the day on the day of the wedding. Sarah and Nyles are trapped in a time loop – to put it simply it’s Groundhog Day but with two people stuck in the loop.

Behind The Scenes

The film is directed by Max Barbakow, a director I am unfamiliar with but is also the director of the documentary Mommy, I’m A Bastard and he deserves some praise for that title alone. The film is written by Barbakow and Andy Siara, again another person I’m not familiar with but has worked with Barbakow before.

In Front of The Camera

The film stars Andy Samberg (best known for Saturday Night Live and Brooklyn 99) and Cristin Milioti (who has appeared in How I Met Your Mother, season 2 of Fargo, The Wolf of Wall Street and more), with a very fun supporting role for Oscar-winner J.K. Simmons. First of all, I defy anyone not to be charmed by Nyles and Sarah. Nyles who has seemingly been stuck in the loop for a long time, maybe thousands of days, has adopted a make-the-best-of-a-bad-situation attitude and concentrates on having a nice time and, importantly, not hurting people. He is permanently dressed inappropriately and virtually always has a beer in his hand. Nyles has already been through the disbelief, anger, attempts at killing himself or flying to the other side of the world and is resigned to this life. Sarah starts off defiant but quickly adopts a similar attitude to Nyles but likes to try and have a bit more control. J.K. Simmons is on top form as another wedding guest who has some issues with Nyles and takes it to extreme lengths.

The Setting

The film’s title is taken from the setting, Palm Springs, a resort town in California and I think it’s worth taking a moment to talk about this. Groundhog Day’s title focuses on the day it is, this film’s title, on the location. They are effectively on holiday, away from their homes, in Sarah’s case surrounded by family and people she has known for years, whereas Nyles is very much a plus one for another guest. Swimming pools are a surprisingly constant feature of the film and often the best thing they think to do with their time is lounge in the pool drinking beer. The other feature of the setting is that it’s a wedding which certainly for Sarah is bringing up all kinds of feelings about family, her life and the bad things she has done. A wedding is seen by some as of huge significance and Nyles and Sarah are forced to watch someone go through something so important and special while they are stuck, never having any significant events.

Does It Work?

The film is very enjoyable and has very poetic and insightful moments about life. The part of the film that is the most fun is when the pair first start heading off adventures after accepting their lives – whether alcohol-fuelled excess, wild parties, impossibly elaborate practical jokes or becoming experts at often trivial tasks it is very funny.

Neither Sarah nor Nyles were particularly happy at the start of their loop and more and more details of the exact circumstances that lead them to the wedding and their own views on life. Sarah often states that she messes things up, has messed up her life, and so this state of affairs where she can step away from her life is very tempting. At the same time, part of the nature of her loop is being confronted by mistakes in a very real and direct way so no matter what she does or how far she funs she always comes back to it.

Inevitably you can’t help but think what you’d do in this situation – there are no consequences so do you take a path of hedonism? Of achieving perfect knowledge? Or horrific murder sprees knowing that things will reset when you go to sleep? Maybe you do them all – the endlessness getting to you in different ways.

The final third of the film is a little less satisfying than the rest of it but does try and do something different to films and tv shows that have explored this idea. There are various “solutions” explored but I’m not aware of anyone getting out of it this way and an interesting example of a character being very proactive. Perhaps the most satisfying thing we get in Palm Springs is the discussions between the characters who are going through this together, especially as one has a different perspective as they have been stuck in the loop far longer than the other. The film also doesn’t shy away from some of the darker and even nihilistic ideas that could be explored in this scenario. I feel I am still making my mind up about the ending – trying to decide if it is good but conventional or if it really goes against what you expect.

This is a film I’d definitely recommend – very funny with a great partnership of the two leads.

Rating: (4 / 5)

Also Read: The Film Fan’s Guide To Time Travel

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Protect The Timeline

We would all do well to remember Abe Simpson’s advice to his son Homer on his wedding day “If you ever travel back in time, don’t step on anything because even the tiniest change can alter the future in ways you can’t imagine.” A dire warning issued to virtually every time traveller is to protect the timeline – do not do anything that will change the present or future. This is explored wonderfully in Back To The Future Part II, Marty buys a sports almanac in the future with the idea of using it to place winning bets in his present. Unfortunately, the almanac winds up in the hands of villain Biff who gives it to his younger self. When Marty returns to his present he finds a very different Hill Valley, beset with crime and corruption in which multi-millionaire Biff essentially runs the town, his mother is married to Biff and his father is dead – later revealed to have been murdered by Biff. The rest of the film is Marty and Doc trying to restore the original timeline by getting the almanac back.

Beware of Paradoxes

There are a number of paradoxes that can beset the unwary time traveller – the most famous being The Grandfather Paradox and the Bootstrap Paradox. The Terminator franchise is a classic example of the Bootstrap Paradox, taking its name from the literal impossibility of a person “pulling themselves up by their bootstraps”. Essentially this is when by going back in time you invent or create something that already existed in your time – meaning its actual moment of creation is lost in a paradox. In The Terminator franchise a war is raging between humans and machines in the distant future (the year 1997), the computers send a killer robot, a Terminator, back in time to kill the mother of the human leader. This terminator is defeated and destroyed…or nearly destroyed, parts of it are salvaged by a company that then go on to create the very computer system fighting humankind. The groundbreaking technology that enabled the creation of artificial intelligence is only possible because that artificial intelligence sent an example of it back in time. Given that there are now six Terminator films as well as a television series the complicated overlapping timelines and paradoxes are essentially nonsensical and any attempt to tell a story has been abandoned.

The setup for The Grandfather Paradox is suitably demonstrated in the Back to the Future trilogy, this time with the first instalment. Marty travels back in time and interrupts the meeting of his parents, thus erasing himself from the timeline. In the film, Marty begins to fade from reality. The paradoxical nature of what he has done is never explored but essentially if Marty erases himself from history then his parents will successfully meet, then he will exist, so he will go back in time, interrupt the meeting and will no longer exist and so on forever. Of course, Back to the Future adds the weird and creepy element of your own mother developing a crush on you, taken to the logical conclusion in Futurama with The Grandmother Paradox – where Fry travels back in time, kills his grandfather and then sleeps with his grandmother, becoming his own grandfather.

The Future Isn’t Necessarily Going To Be Better

In our modern times looking back at the past it can sometimes seem like we’ve be on an almost inevitably upward trajectory of progress – both scientific and social. This is wrong. There is no reason to suppose the future would be better than the present. Few time travel films portray this better than the 1960 classic The Time Machine, based on H.G. Wells’ novel. Setting off from Victorian England the protagonist travels forward in time and while at first he sees the march of science and progress things turn bad, at some point in the 1960s there is a terrible, world-wide calamity, seemingly brought on by humankind itself in which the world is covered in lava. Finally stopping in the far distant future when the lava is gone he finds the Eloi, a group of beautiful people but who seem to understand little of the world and laze around waiting for food to be delivered. The protagonist learns that the Eloi are little more than cattle for the subterranean Morlocks, ugly monstrous creatures but have vastly more intellect. In fact, both the Eloi and the Morlocks are the descendants of the human race, each taking a diverging path. Our future could contain killer robots, a world-ending plague or maybe nothing at all.

Getting Things Right

Time travel offers unique opportunities to get things right the second time around. Action sci-fi blockbuster Edge of Tomorrow (also known as Live. Die. Repeat) starred Tom Cruise as a soldier, Cage, infected by alien blood who travels back in time each time he dies, reliving the same day. This is the alien’s ultimate weapon that allows them to avoid defeat by learning and changing their tactics appropriately. Cage is transformed from manipulative PR coward into a battle-hardened hero by repeatedly dying, slowly getting better. Groundhog Day is one of the best films ever made and while it doesn’t even attempt to look at the science or magic or whatever of time travel, it investigates what it might do to a person. Arrogant and selfish weatherman Phil Connors is trapped in a seemingly endless loop, repeating the same day over and over again. Connors goes through a variety of stages from enjoying the absence of consequences, to using his future knowledge to get money and sex, to becoming suicidal from the never-ending sameness of it all to eventually becoming a better man. What both films show, amongst other things, is that an ability to know the future, even just a few hours, can give you immense powers. To others Cage seems damn near indestructible, knowing where wreckage will fall from the sky or where aliens are hiding to Connors performing perfectly timed bank heists where no one even knows a robbery has been committed or simply getting every answer on Jeopardy. In Edge of Tomorrow Cage dies on screen 24 times, but it is suggested the total is a lot higher. Groundhog Day director Harold Ramis has put out that he thinks Connors was stuck in the same day for somewhere between thirty and forty years.

It is perhaps unlikely any of us will be called upon our knowledge of time travel learned from movies but hopefully, if you are, this will have been a helpful guide.

Also Read: Flashpoint: The Defining Film of the DCEU

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