a really good producer

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I just had to yell (sort of) at Rita. It wasn't about the robotic tendencies or the insult-by-poetry (I've begun to think that kinda cool, actually, and wish I knew the right poetry to insult people on a regular basis); rather it was about two things in the Tip Top Cafe scene on Day 3. She's there to talk to Phil who was "too sick to work" that morning. As his producer, you'd think she would want to get to the bottom of the situation as soon as possible, maybe start coming up with some way to a) reprimand Phil for screwing up the Groundhog Day report and b) not get any of the blame herself. But, instead she takes the time to eat an entire sticky bun before even saying to Phil: "Okay, now tell me why you're too sick to work, and it better be good."

He proceeds to tell her about the time loop, which implies a serious psychological break or at least some issue with drugs, both pretty big concerns, but she wants to "talk about it back in Pittsburgh." Rita has already delayed this conversation, and now she wants to postpone the rest of it another hour-and-a-half.

I told Rita to get her priorities straight. I question whether or not she's even going to "be a really good producer" as Phil's assistant Kenny predicts.

Speaking of that line, I just typed it as "be a great producer" at first. And, it occurred to me, as I realized my mistake and fixed it, that Ramis really liked his adverbs. Don't get me wrong, Larry's line--"He was a really great guy. I really really liked him... a lot"--is possibly a perfect line of dialogue for the scene, for the character, for the film. But, there are a lot of reallys in this movie. Verys as well.

Thirty two of each, actually. Some examples:

Kenny describing Rita: "She's really nice. I think she's gonna be a really good producer."

Phil to Nancy: "You look very very terrific."

Phil in response to Rita's list of traits for her "perfect guy": "I'm really close on this one. Really really close."

Part of Phil's weather report in the studio: "they're gonna have some very very tall trees." (Which Kenny misquotes as "really big trees.")

I must correct what was a really really innocent mistake above. There may be 32 reallys, but I neglected to think of how very exists inside the word every. There are only 13 verys in Groundhog Day.

To be fair, there are over 10,000 words in the movie (including song lyrics), so even 32 is a small number relative to that total. But, it bugs me that both Phil and Larry use "really really." It is only Phil that uses "very very" and it occurs to me now that maybe Larry talks like Phil, in much the same way that he pursues Nancy at the end of the film, because he is a lot like Phil. He's slightly more dorky, I suppose, but I would guess Larry would love to have the life of pre-loop Phil.

On another note, before I cut today's entry short, this is Day 265 of the Groundhog Day Project. There are only 100 days left. It's time to start getting to entries that I have been putting off.

Today's day to repeat a day forever: to really really enjoy it and have a very very fulfilling experience.

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