wears on his...

Today begins with a nitpick of Benesh (2011) but it won't be all about her work. In her section about "Lines and Spheres," Benesh refers to "the striped clothing most often worn by Phil Connors." And, I don't think he wears his striped shirt more often than any other. In fact, I think he wears the blue shirt more often. But, hey, I watch the movie every day. I can check.

So, here goes:

Day 0 - obviously, the outfits for the first day would be different than the rest of the film, though Rita's and Larry's aren't that different... no, let's be more systematic about this.

Day 0:

• Phil - black 3-piece suit, striped shirt, diagonal grid tie, puts on scarf and coat.
• Rita - black pants, blue coat, white blouse, light blue vest? sweater?, scarf.
• Larry - blue jeans, green station jacket over blue grey hoodie, red polo shirt over what looks to be a white t-shirt.

Day 1:

• Phil - grey suit, blue shirt, olive and blue leaf tie, plus scarf and coat and gloves (assume those when he's outside unless I mention otherwise).
• Rita - blue coat and scarf (assume as above), shirt hidden by scarf. (at bar, white blouse, striped vest, presumably black pants - her date night outfit).
• Phil - blue jeans, station jacket, hoodie, plaid flannel shirt, white undershirt. (at bar, grey-ish shirt, foxy sweater).

Day 2:

• Phil - same, which makes sense; he's confused and just goes with the outfit he probably had selected before.
• Rita - same... assume same unless I mention her.
• Larry - same... assume same unless I mention him (I think he just wears that bar outfit for the last day, so Larry's only got three outfits in the whole movie).

Day 3:

• Phil - third time's the charm. same blue shirt, same leaf tie... worn a little more haphazardly, the top button of his shirt undone, and he doesn't close his suit coat. Weirdly Phil has on the grid tie that night at the bowling alley, which implies a new day, or maybe Phil just spilled something. On his tie. In the jail cell, Phil has no tie of course, and we see he's got a white undershirt
• Rita - in the Tip Top, we see her pink sweater and blue shirt (a man's shirt, I just noticed yesterday. I wonder if it belongs to Max), with a white shirt underneath.

An interesting sidenote: Gus wears a blue jacket like Rita does. His is more like a windbreaker than hers but it's still blue. Two layers under it like Rita. And, Ralph wears one coat over another over a flannel shirt over a t-shirt just like Larry. Different colors, but similar layering. It's almost like Gus and Ralph are surrogates for the night in Phil's trinity.

Day 4:

Phil - striped shirt buttoned all the way up, grid tie.

Day 5 (the day of his date with Nancy):

Phil - blue shirt, grid tie.

Day 6 (robbery day):

Phil - striped shirt, no tie, black vest... maybe the black suit under the coat. His pants actually look blue in the robbery scene. And, of course that night (presumably), he's dressed like Clint Eastwood (that shirt does seem to have some stripes).

Day 7:

• Phil - though I've figured out before that the footage on the monitor in the van is of Phil from Day 1, you can only barely make out which tie he's wearing (at least on the DVD copy); it's the leaf tie over his blue shirt. Outside the van, though, Phil is wearing the grid tie over the blue shirt. And, in the Tip Top, with his coat off, he's wearing the black suit. So, color this one a continuity error.
• Rita - the usual but you can finally see her jeans, which are a bit more grey than Larry's.

And, so "date night" gets started. Let's see if they wear the same outfits the whole time--well, Rita doesn't. I already know that.

Day 8 (vermouth scene part two):

Phil - same.

Day 9 (vermouth scene part three, candy shop, restaurant one):

• Phil - same.
• Rita - by the restaurant scene, Rita has changed into the blouse and vest.

Day 10 (restaurant two (French), snowman one, slap "one" (in Phil's room)):

• Phil - same.
• Rita - same. Indeed, you can see the black pants, though her blue jacket covers the blouse and vest (presumably) when they're outside. In Phil's room, it's black pants, blouse, vest for sure.

Now, it's about to get tricky with the montage of slaps.

Day 11 (snowman two, slap two (at Gobbler's Knob)):

• Phil - same.
• Rita - same.

Day 12 (slap three (outside gate to Cherry Street Inn)):

Phil - side shot, can't see anything but coat and scarf.

Day 13 (slap four (in Phil's room)):

Phil - black suit, blue shirt, grid tie.

Day 14 (slap five (outside the Pennsylvanian Hotel)):

Phil - shot high, nothing but scarf and coat visible.

Day 15 (slap six (outside Pennsylvanian)):

Phil - blue shirt, grid tie.

Day 16 (slap seven (outside Cherry Street)):

Phil - side shot again, can't see anything but coat and scarf.

Day 17 (slap eight (outside Pennsylvanian)):

Phil - blue shirt, grid tie.

Day 18 (slap nine (outside Pennsylvanian)):

Phil - blue shirt, grid tie.

Day 19 (you look terrible):

Phil - striped shirt (top button unbuttoned), leaf tie (very loose).

Day 20 (jeopardy):

Phil - still in his pajamas.

Day 21 (hypocrites):

Phil - black suit, blue shirt, no tie.

Days 22 and 23 Phil breaks the radio, so blue pajamas.

Day 24 (kidnapping):

Phil - black suit, striped shirt, no tie.

Days 25, 26 and 27 are suicides, so blue pajamas.

Day 28 (god day):

• Phil - white t-shirt, grey pants under coat. Weirdly, back at his room, he has the striped shirt on over the t-shirt.
• Rita - the usual, and stripped down to her long-sleeve undershirt in Phil's room.

Day 29 (handout, coffee, Tip Top, Mary's)

Phil - grey suit, blue shirt, grid tie... Reading at the Tip Top, it's blue shirt, no tie, and black vest (which may have been under the coat in the previous scenes). Going to Mary's, he's still got blue shirt without tie.

Day 30 (ciao, Mary's, ice sculpting)

Phil - black suit, blue shirt, leaf tie. At Mary's, it's striped shirt, grid tie... another day? Ice sculpting, you can't see much but the gloves and, I guess, smock.

Day 31 (Mary's)

Phil - black suit with a confused shirt--on the closeup of his hands, the cuffs are the striped shirt, but he's clearly wearing the blue shirt otherwise. Leaf tie.

Day 31 (hugging Ned, taking O'Reilly to hospital)

Phil - striped shirt, no tie, black vest.

Day 32 (feeding O'Reilly, mouth to mouth)

Phil - striped shirt, no tie... and his suit looks brown but it may just be a lighting problem.

Day 32 (errands, party)

Phil - grey suit (though it looks brown when he meets Ned on the way out of the party later), blue shirt, leaf tie. For the party it's striped shirt, no tie. Actually, it's a different striped shirt, one that's collarless. Changing his shirt after running around all day seems reasonable.

(Sidenote on Buster: so, he wears his Inner Circle outfit that morning, changes into an olive green shirt with a red checked vest for lunch (or maybe dinner) then gets back into his Inner Circle outfit for the party. Of course, originally, it wasn't Buster who choked.)

February 3rd:

• Phil - collarless striped shirt because he "just fell to sleep" the night before. And, we can see he's wearing jeans, not his grey suit pants.
• Rita - blouse from the night before.

That's 34 days for the count this time (with a possible couple extra, if we go by clothing changes). Phil wears a striped shirt on 7 days and part of a couple others. He spends 6 days in his pajamas. I don't think we can call the striped shirt "most often worn."

Today's reason to repeat a day forever: to never wear the same outfit twice... which means I've really got to find a armored truck to rob so I can afford some new clothes.