Always Finding The Good



I recently watched a movie I've heard about but never seen.

It's a comedy with quite a powerful story.

A reporter, who is very full of himself, desires to ascend to a more prestigious position.

His current assignment is to a small town covering an annual folk story of a weather predicting rodent.

If you're my age or older, you may have seen this movie or heard about it.

He dismisses and offends everyone around him, considering himself too great, too smart and too talented to be around them, seeing himself above the simple and humble people of this town.

But something quite unorthodox happens.

He is bound to repeat that same day over and over again.

He relives the same day every day, despite his efforts to alter his destiny, even to the point of killing himself, he continues awaking to the same day and always repeating events.

At first he has his fun, learning about people and their past to gain leverage over them, but his exploits never carry over into the next day, showing his deplorable efforts a fleeting waste of time.

Yet, as the same day repeats, his heart's desire comes to the surface; his love for a coworker.

His own attempts fails to win her heart.

When he 'predicts' all events of that day to her, this alienates him further from her and others.

Only when he confronts his own frail character, arrogance, unbridled pride and broken heart does he realize life's purpose and meaning.

One particular repeated day, he wastes no time serving everyone he can reach in town.

From the homeless man that will eventually die later in the evening, to the little old ladies in a car with a punctured tire, he pours himself out to serve everyone.

This lifts him to the status he has always desired, but finds himself not full of his old self, but with the love he so desired for himself from those around him.

He also wins the love of his coworker, again because he put himself last in lifting everyone else around him.

His earlier disrespect and distaste for this small town and people now turns to love and belonging.

I was touched by this movie in a great way, learning what the writers had woven into the comedy of a man bound to repeat a day he initially couldn't stand.

I laughed and cried.

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