It’s not surprising that the 1993 romantic comedy, Groundhog Day, starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell, is a cult favorite among armchair philosophers and mystics.

In the movie, Murray’s character finds himself trapped, alone, stranded in a small town—in a time loop. Every single day begins as February 2, Groundhog Day. Initially he seeks the ordinary pleasures in life—seducing women, robbing banks, drinking at the bar. Eventually he finds that the joys are fleeting and insubstantial, and despair and depression consume him. He even tries killing himself—often—only to wake up in the same bed, on the same day. This one day becomes a metaphor, and plot device, for the procession of a seemingly endless number of lifetimes.

Books like Stephen Simon’s The Force Is With You: Mystical Movie Messages That Inspire Our Lives herald the movie as a cornerstone to an ever-expanding spiritual dimension that is being channeled, through cinema, into our lives. And further ruminations upon the themes in Groundhog Day can be found online (Wikipedia | fan site). Even Roger Ebert revisits the movie and waxes philosphical about it.

The real surprise, however, is it’s continuing popularity with legitimate religious leaders. An article about the movie ran in the New York Times a couple years ago, Groundhog Almighty, to commemorate a film series from the Museum of Modern Art, “The Hidden God: Film and Faith,” and centered upon the phenomenon—

“Since its debut a decade ago, the film has become a curious favorite of religious leaders of many faiths, who all see in Groundhog Day a reflection of their own spiritual messages.” Jewish, Christian, Buddhist, Wicca, Falun Gong—it's all in there, apparently. “‘No one comes down and issues this formal command, and so he doesn't know, and the audience doesn't know, why this day is repeating, but it is,' Prendergast said. ‘And that's why it is appealing to so many different religions. He faces this existential test, but he does not know it's a test, and he doesn't know what the results will be.'” (Alex Kuczynski, The New York Times, Dec 2003, further excerpts are available here)