Can anyone remember the exact scene where there is a shift in his thinking and he finally stops thinking about himself and pleasing himself? Is it when he has a great night with Rita, only to realize she's gone the next day?
exactly. you see him wake up with an expression of hope and joy, then he sobers up as he realises he's now alone and his face clearly says "this is now a new beginning" just before the cut.
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Whenever the moment that he stopped trying to nail Rita. He began to actually care for the townsfolk.
He's taking the knife out of the Cheese!
Do you think he wants some cheese?
It has to be during the "I'm a god" scene. He's tested the boundaries of his situation and has come to accept it for what it is. He's honest with Rita and demonstrates that, unlike memorizing what type of drink she likes, he actually somehow knows intimate details of her life that only she could have told him. This, of course, leads to the first night where she stays with him until 6 AM. He's definitely changed the next day, arriving with coffee, treating Larry with respect for the first time, etc.
Maybe he hasn't yet decided to start improving himself, but he has definitely already changed by the start of that scene.
Short answer: He never stops thinking about himself. But he eventually learns to think of others, too.
Longer answer: In the beginning of the film, Phil doesn't like himself. He has no self-esteem. After experiencing the same day over and over, he eventually realizes he may live forever. The prospect of being miserable forever was daunting. So he decides to change.
At one point, he decides that there are no consequences to his actions. But he is wrong, because he remembers everything that happens. His memories are a consequence. What he has to remember is a string of unhappy, meaningless days. So he decides to change.
He needs self-esteem, but gaining self-esteem is not easy. But he observes Rita, and he sees she is "very generous" and "the kindest, sweetest...person I've ever met". Clearly he values her (and her traits). So he decides to become kinder. He also learns over time that he enjoys learning. So he masters playing the piano, ice sculpting, etc. And as he changes, he likes himself more.
He says that he wanted to hold Rita the first time he saw her. Becoming a person she would value (she gives him a list of the traits she wants in a man) becomes a goal of his.
At the end of one night, she tells him, "Maybe it's not a curse (living the same day over and over). It just depends on how you look at it." I think this is the prompt that gets him to change. As she nods off to sleep, he says "I don't deserve someone like you." We know he wants to deserve her. This is the moment when he realizes he can (and should) be better. When he wakes up the next morning, he goes out of his way to be kind to others.
In the course of the film, he doesn't just come to love Rita. He also learns how to love himself.
Short answer: I see this film as an allegory to spiritual growth. At first, Phil is (reasonably) successful in his life, but he is unhappy even though he may not be realizing it. It gets worse: soon every day looks the same as yesterday. For a while, he is able to distract his mind with sex, food, alcohol, and whatever addictions you can think of. But so what, the days keep repeating and the pain does not go away. Finally it gets so bad that a more fundamental change is needed. He starts working on himself, helping others too, but it is not easy. Ultimately he gets it right, rejoins the humanity, and gets out of the loop. In the process, he became a better person.
He goes through stages, the first stage is obviously disbelief, disbelief that he's in some loop, replaying the same day over and over...
Then theres the carefree phil having sex, crimes....then utterly sick of it he tries to kill himself...
An interesting a part of this film is all the theories people have about how long he was actually there, some people say in order for him to learn french, do ice sculptures... he'd need years and years of practice... some even estimate he was replaying that day for 80 years.
Bored. I think phil got to know every single person in that entire town, especially rita.. which allowed him to have sympathy, an empathy he never had...
so it was more little by little.
People say he was in the loop for 10,000 years, but the human mind can only hold about 200 years worth of learned information before it starts to break. Otherwise by the end of the movie Phil would’ve forgotten how to speak and would be a drooling idiot.
His virtuoso piano skills would take about ten years to become proficient in, so he was definitely in there for a couple decades.
I actually watched it again a few nights ago and really enjoyed it, the first thing i did was look up theories and opinions about the film, the depper meaning.
Yeah i agree, he could have been there anything between what? 20-25 years and 100s of years. thats a very trippy thought.. the same day over and over again for so long. but then again if he's learning things and learning about himself and others..