Groundhog Day it’s a movie that doesn’t need introduction, maybe even less a review.
You might know they did actually make a sequel to that beloved Bill Murray led film… in form of a VR only game, Groundhog Day: Like Father, Like Son…. most likely you’ve never heard of it before i just mentioned it now.
But we’re not reviewing that either.
For some variety we’re instead talking about the 2004 Italian (technically an Italian-Spanish production) remake of Groundhog Day, which i’m fairly sure no one that isn’t Italian has never heard in any shape or form, called “E’ Gia Ieri”, literally translation being “It’s Tomorrow Already” but it also goes by the international English title of “Stork Day”, which sounds iffy even it’s about as accurate and correct as it would/could realistically be for an alternate English title meant for foreign markets.
You most likely already guessed why that is the case, but let’s talk plot first.
Also, just saying it now, but yes, SPOILERS of a 32 years old movie that’s far from obscure are gonna happen.
Even if we could as well not, it is a remake of Groundhog Day, and indeed, the basic premise is the same, but for clarity and since i strongly assume newer generations haven’t seen the 1993 Harold Ramis directed film, we’ll cover it now all the same.
Filippo is a famous TV personality specialized in zoological shows, an egoistical arrogant ass of a man that despise his job and everyone elses’, begrudingly sent by his boss on a small place in the Canary Islands to film a report on a rare flock of storks.
After doing the report, its stuck on the island due to a storm, so he passes the night in a hotel there, only for him to wake up and realize he’s stuck in a time loop, as he relives that 13th of August over over, then decides to use this knowledge to indulge his cynistical tendencies, his sexual and then suicidal urges, until he turns a new leaf over many loops by learning to be a better man, even trying to use the knowledge he gains to try and advert his fate as well as the other people’s…
One thing that i can’t say of this remake by director Giulio Manfredonia is that it strays from the source material to alienating degrees, or that it borrows the idea as a mere marketing tool.
Because it’s a pretty dang loyal remake, a rare Italian remake that borrows from an American film (instead of being the otherway around), and by a then young italian director that wanted to tackle the idea, this kind of “if only” scenarios and what they can entail being an intriguing proposition.
And there’s definitely respect, reverence for the original, as this remake sticks to the formula even more closely than one would imagine (aside from the opening scene being a wink and a nod to the original, with the documentarist doing a piece about the groundhog and it’s habitat), since the lead actor here is also a revered comedy actor that at the time was trying to make more serious comedy or drama films, to break free of his comedian only persona he built over time, with Antonio Albanese standing in for Bill Murray’s role, alongside a cast of well known and fairly renowed italian actors….that i don’t expect anyone that isn’t or wasn’t living in Italy for the past 2 decades to known, to be honest.
I honestly enjoyed it more than expected, i gotta say, given the fairly lukewarm reception it had at the time in Italy (and still has, to be frank), but i also struggle to “justify” this remake, not for the lack of trying, nor the lack of competent actors or casting, it’s just that kind of remake that sticks so close to the source it’s hard not to call it a “knock off”, and yet it attempt just comes kinda short, despite being a good effort that tries to offer a cultural variation to Ramis’ script, giving more space to the romance subplot and being more compact (as it’s also slightly shorter runtime) it ends up lacking something to organically tie together its many subplots, bloom into something different or better than the 1993 original, and ends up feeling more repetitive than it is/wants to be, more unfocused aside from the idea of doing the “time loop” humbling shebang.
It’s not even bad, it’s quite entertaining, the comedy it’s solid, it’s a decent film in itself, arguably more than decent, but as a remake i feel conflicted in rethorically questioning what was the point of remaking it when even in Italy Groundhog Day was quite well known and received by 2004, and praising it for actually succeeding in giving the script a “national flavor” without undermining the ideas and themes… it’s also frustrating because it could have been even better and build its own personality on top of the original concept, but ultimately opts for imitation more than anything.
Again, i wanna stress this is a quite a decent movie still, though aside from italians that didn’t know about this one, i see very little reason for anyone else to care about this foreign remake that doesn’t manage the admittedly tall, impossible or “pointless” order of being as good as the original.
Curiously, this isn’t even the only foreign remake of Groundhog Day, not the only that came out in 2004, as the same year saw a German TV movie remake, this one called Liebe in Der Warteschleif (literally translating to “Love On Hold”), but apparently isn’t a direct remake.
Hope this will soften the blow that will come with the next – and far more recent – italian movie we’ll review here next, so buckle up, because we’re gonna go knee deep in the septic tank.
Wise Cafe (International) 