Lonely Island’s “Palm Springs” Gives Groundhog Day a Rom-Com Twist

Palm Springs is kind of what might happen if you took Groundhog Day and gave it a darker twist with a younger cast. Even comparing this project to Groundhog Day is kind of depressing as Angie Han of Mashable goes into the details of just what Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti are up to in this supposedly comedic, romantic fling that sees them both stuck in a time loop in which they both tend to go from having a great and wild time to being depressed and basically bummed out that they can’t change anything no matter how they try. This is the time loop idea taken to an extreme that is interesting in a way but also has the kind of undertones that one might expect from a society that feels as though it’s stuck in a continual uphill struggle to reach the goals that it desires but somehow can’t for reasons that have yet to be fully developed and analyzed. In other words it’s a story that’s chasing its own tail relentlessly but without any real conviction as it explores what it means to love, to live, to exist, and so on and so forth. It’s not the worst type of story since these ideas are popular among a lot of people and the idea of two people being stuck in the time loop is a little more entertaining than just one person that knows what’s going on while the rest of the world appears to move on.

As Adam Chitwood of Collider has stated, this movie does actively challenge those that believe that ‘nothing matters’ in a way that suggests that getting up each day and going about your business, whatever that might be and whatever it could entail, is far easier with someone by your side, not necessarily a lover or even someone that could become a lover, but just someone to share the days and the moments with. Sarah and Nyles are, on their own, kind of pathetic characters that might mimic the attitudes of a lot of people throughout the world at this point, but the trick is that the movie is actively taking shots at such people while trying to come to the compromise between the ‘nothing matters’ attitude and a feeling that things do matter, but it’s easier for them to matter when there’s someone to share them with. In terms of comparing it to Groundhog Day there’s a lot of similarity since if one can recall, Bill Murray’s character had to come to a long and hard realization that his life was missing something, or someone, that he could share it with. His own attitude in the movie wasn’t too far removed from Nyles aside from the fact that he was egotistic and quite arrogant, where Nyles just doesn’t care as he tends to believe that nothing he does matters. That feels like an easy assumption to make when one’s life is the same day over, and over, and over.

There are those folks that love these types of stories and those that think they’re a big waste of time. From a personal standpoint I happen to like them since they offer a look at what might happen if there really was no tomorrow since today just never ends. Thinking about what might happen if some unknown force hits a reset button at the end of every day is a curiosity that has a lot of different implications for a lot of people since for some it would mean that nothing they did mattered if no one was going to remember it tomorrow. For some folks that’s just too much to bear since they want a legacy that defines their life, while with others it’s a continuing chance to try new things and discover the world in a way that they might not have had they been allowed to keep going and remain in the same life they’d been living for so long. It’s a fun idea but it’s also one that raises a lot of questions without giving that many concrete answers, which could be why some folks don’t ascribe to it as much. When all is said and done though the time loop idea has been done a few different times but it’s almost always had the same result, meaning that those stuck in the loop, be it one or more people, eventually find some way to enjoy the time they’ve been given, or fall into despair and try desperately to find a way out, or shut down entirely. As far as original ideas go it’s not exactly something that could be called unique and entirely innovative since it does pull from an idea that’s been used a few times, but it’s still a different spin on that same idea that some people might like. David Ehrlich of IndieWire has more to offer on this matter.