I had forgotton about the “you just fell asleep” line. Thanks. I agree completely with your last comment which, I repeat, “was lost on those who think they have a higher degree of critical thought and sensitivity than the average viewer”.

http://www.nationalreview.com/blogs/print/228088

I never get tired of watching it and very time I notice something I hadn’t noticed before. Love it! Right down to the annoying but very apropos Sonny and Cher lyrics that start every Groundhog Day for Phil.

(P) Something is different.

(R) Good or bad?

(P)Anything different is good…

but this could be real good.

Why are you here?

(R) I bought you. I own you.

(P) But why are you still here?

(R) You said stay, so I stayed.

(P) I said stay, so you stayed?

I can’t even make a collie stay.

I gotta check something.

Stay…

They’re gone! They’re all gone! Do you know what today is?

(R) What?

(P) Today is tomorrow. It happened.

You’re here.

(R) I’m here. [I recall that at this point they kiss passionately]

Why weren’t you like this last night?

You just fell sleep.

[P} It was the end of a very long day.

Now, someone could argue she means he fell asleep right after sex (although that would be stretching it ridiculously, because she says he just—as in, “only”—fell asleep), but that person would be tone deaf to what’s going on in this scene and in the scene the night before. The one the night before is not sexual in nature, whereas this one hints much more at sex. You get the idea that now finally, the relationship will definitely be consummated.

One thing that struck me about GHD was “I’ve Got You, Babe” which started as an annoying “hick” song and became somewhat transcendent at the end.

My point was not that it represented Catholic teaching but made a good parable. Clearly, Phil was not purified by his own agency but by something ‘other’ that worked on him.

I confess that I’ve only seen the movie once when it first came out, I very much enjoyed it, just never got around to seeing it again.

As I recall, initially and for much of the film (?), Murray’s becoming ‘a better person’ is a ploy, so as to increase the odds that he’ll get into Rita’s pants, yes? Might the reviewers themselves have never moved beyond that motivation? If I remember correctly, it isn’t until Murray has recognized and accepted his love for Rita that sex with her is no longer his primary motivation. I suspect the reviewers who assume that they finally had sex view that as a necessary payoff for all his efforts. Thus missing the point of the movie entirely.

Metaphors like parables and even Hollywood movies can often be appreciated at different levels of insight. “let each understand as they are able” applies to more than just Jesus’ parables.

Rather, Purgatory is a purging (hence the name) of all the various imperfections in a person which is necessary in order to enter into a place of perfection (Heaven). It is purification. And although Phil did go through a process of purification, the purification in Purgatory is the purifying “fire” of God, if we wish to use the analogy of the purification of gold is through fire. In Purgatory, God is the purifying agent, not the person himself.

I should add, though, that the movie is not perfect. Rita’s final “redemption” of Phil, for instance, results in their sleeping together the next morning. (Call it the incense that had to be thrown on the Hollywood fire.)

I am quite surprised that so many thoughtful viewers of the movie have made such an elementary error. But it seems quite common. How odd.