Monday, November 5, 2012

If there were no tomorrow

What if there were no tomorrow? If you woke up in the same morning everyday, what would you do?

                                                                                       - A review of Groundhog Day


I view movies basically as entertains. So I came for the first viewing for this movie "Groundhog Day" on a Tuesday. I simply wanted to entertain myself after a day’s work. Now, as l look back, I’d say I wasn’t wrong, for just the first twenty minutes of the movie. The movie aroused my interest quite successfully in the never-seen-before setting of reliving the same day. Even I was wondering what I can do if I were able to stay on the same day. Pretty convinced by Phil, for the moment I saw him driving messily around and playing tricks on cops, I also wanted to try a day without any consequence. I can do whatever I want. I can play computer games all day long without worrying the paper due tomorrow. I can rob the bank like Phil did in the movie to buy an extremely fancy Ferrari I could ever dream of. There is no tomorrow! No responsibility, no consequences! I bet anyone would totally release the demon inside to enjoy the “today”. So far, the movie was a comedy to me.

But I start to feel depressed as Phil woke up on the same day every day. He did any evil thing he could think of on that day and ended up waking up at the same time, same place where he woke up yesterday. The excitement brought by the crazy things he did faded and turned to depression and emptiness. He was happy superficially until his mind got bored. I began to be serious to this movie. It’s not simply a comedy, but a lesson to learn. Doing evil crazy things when you can relive the same day is not the right way to enjoy the day. Phil reflected. So on the next same day, Phil hugged his high school classmate warmly, he brought his colleagues hot breakfast, he tried to save an old dying man… He changed a lot. He started to help others, become warm-hearted and versatile, and finally, won Rita’s heart.

And now, it’s time for me to reflect. I think Phil gave us the answer to the question of how does one live his/her life. The setting of reliving the same day is in fact not something funny. It’s a magnifier, which enlarges how ugly we would be and makes us realize that. Now I look back myself, I see that terrible side of myself as I was thinking about those crazy things I would do if I could relive the same day. Although I’m not going to do that in reality, I can still see the effect it has on me. Say, if the consequence of an action is irrelevant to me, will that “I can do whatever I want” thought come out of my mind? More importantly, will I be happy if I really act irresponsibly? Probably just for the second of action. After that, nothing left at all. What if I act responsibly and try to make things near to perfect like Phil did? In the movie, the spell breaks because he found the right way to live and he finally won his true love. In reality, I believe it makes people really happy because whenever they look back their life, everything they did was the result of their attention and deep consideration. They feel fulfilled, which I think is one form of ultimate happiness.

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