Endless day with Bill Murray

THE film Groundhog Day is a goofball Zen comedy, a funny and occasionally transcendent ''Twilight Zone'' joke: What if a man woke up and was doomed to relive the same day over and over again? And what if that man was the affably smug noodlehead Bill Murray? Set in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, on the occasion of its annual meteorological festivities, the movie is a literal-minded but nonetheless ingenious metaphor for the stuck-in-a-rut syndrome.

Happily, Murray finds himself in it in the company of Andie MacDowell.