the groundhog day project

Near the bottom of the end credits for Life as a House , there is this: This film is dedicated to RAMONA EVELYN ANDRUS "Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns..." --William Wordsworth After a Google search, I cannot tell you who Ramona Evelyn Andrus is. Clearly, she's related to Mark Andrus, who wrote the film, but I can't find anything more specific. The references that come up just come back to this dedication. His mother maybe? As for the Wordsworth, that's line 97 of "Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye during a Tour. July 13, 1798," more commonly known as simply "Tintern Abbey." It's an example of what's called loco-topographical poetry. Some other notable examples are John Denham's "Cooper's Hill," Alexander Pope's "Windsor Forest," John Dyer's "Grongar Hill" and Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "Sonnet V. To the River Otter....

The introduction of the various characters tell us a whole lot about how they will be for the rest of the film. And, I don't just mean the fact that Sam (Hayden Cristensen) gets out of bed, huffs and puts his neck in a makeshift noose hanging in his closet. Or that George (Kevin Kline) goes outside to pee, facing the ocean, first thing in the morning. I'm talking about clothing. George is in his underwear, white briefs. He's old fashioned, but he also has no shame. Sam wears boxers and a t-shirt, both dark. (They will both also be naked later in the film.) Alyssa (Jena Malone) is also introduced in her underwear (and will be naked later), leaning out the window to watch George. Her mother Colleen (Mary Steenburgen)--who seems to always be home even though she's a single parent--is introduced in pajamas (and will be naked later). Robin (Kristin Scott Thomas), on the other hand, is introduced already fully dressed and ready for her day (even though she, also, stays hom...

Day 207 - more than anything else began a three-day obituary of sorts for Harold Ramis in this blog. During phase one of this blog—if you’re new, that’s when I was watching Groundhog Day every day—I would include a “reason to repeat a day forever” at the end of the entry. That particular entry ended with a rather lengthy one... “I will forego the obvious, trying to keep people from dying,” I began. As Phil learns in the third act of Groundhog Day sometimes that is a pointless exercise. If we didn’t have death looming off on the horizon, life wouldn’t have the value it does. If we’re lucky enough or bold enough, we live life to the fullest. And, when death comes for us, we face it with dignity and resolve, knowing that we have lived. So, no, I would not necessarily try to keep anyone from dying. But, for those who I cannot save, I would be with them, to be sure they are neither panicked nor confused. I would give comfort where I could and maybe rage alongside those more resistant to...

The opening shot of Life as a House is a digital trick (one done much cleaner elsewhere, but not too bad for 2001)--the camera cranes down toward the shack, then through the window into the interior, focusing briefly on the model house that will be built later, then onto George in bed. The visual metaphor is simple: 1. we are being allowed into this man's life in an intimate fashion, 2. George is already being equated to that house and the shack; and 3. that house is inside the shack just as the idea of it, and the potential for its building is inside George. Additionally--and linked to #1 there--the window frame works as a stand-in for the frame of the camera, the frame of the movie screen, the frame of the TV as we watch the story begin. (That this window will soon not exist does not negate the metaphor because by then we're invested or explicitly disinterested.) At the end of the film, George will also see the finished house (looking as small as that model) through the ...

I don't completely buy the idea that George has always hated his job. Making those models the way he does, taking his time on the details--that should be meditative. Like when I have the time to build with my LEGO blocks. Or the rare occasion that I get to write fiction again (The last story I wrote was a couple years ago, now. While my wife and I were separated the first time, I wrote four stories. I actually like all of them. Some stories I've written--afterward, I wasn't that impressed. These four--I still like them. (If you're curious... Masks , Feelings , Maurice the Turtle Who Wanted to Be Human , An Offer of Violence .) I don't write poetry much, either.) and there's a sense of... I don't know what it is. It's some measure of expression, the power that comes from taking ideas inside my head and putting them out into the world. Like this blog or my good academic papers, but more personal. No, that isn't quite it. This blog is often very pe...

George's post-firing rage bit reminds me of Johnny Baxter's in Snowball Express , a little over the top... a lot over the top, but still understandable. And, Snowball Express is a movie that very much ties into my childhood, a movie we had on video and watched often. Life as a House , on the other hand, is a link back to a very specific moment in my life. Movie came out October 26, 2001. The next Wednesday, Halloween, I would meet in person for the first time the woman I would marry the next March. I knew she was coming. I was probably in a good mood. But, I'd spent a good part of my 20s depressed and/or lonely. I don't know really know if this film goes too far into the realm of schmaltz (the bit with the nurse, maybe) or if it offers up a nice even portrayal of damaged people and damaged relationships in the face of grief and death. I just know that it felt genuine when I saw it then, and it feels as genuine when I watch it now. I may have been headed into somethin...

Life goes better when you choose what goes into it. It's so obvious as to be a truism, but sometimes I think we just let stuff happen rather than really make an effort to choose what we let into our lives. The same can be said for this blog, and lately, this blog and my life have been weaving into and out of one another. Thing is, choosing what movies I would be watching this month was difficult. On the one hand, if this were just another month and the end of this second year would just roll right into another year of the same (or something similar), it would be simpler than if this were the last month I'd be doing this. And, I definitely see it like this: there is no taking a break and then coming back later. Just doesn't work that way. (Especially since, a lot of the time this blog is the break from everything else, my space to do what I want, say what I want.) If this were just another month, I've already got one good set of four films ready for a month (but I won...