Groundhog Day Was Originally Written As A Much Darker Film

Rather than risking audience disorientation or a narrator crutch, Groundhog Day axed both, and may very well be the better movie for it. There is a wonderfully natural way that the story progresses in the film, with Phil Connors first adjusting to and understanding his situation, then exploiting it, and then feeling crushed by it. The earliest draft would certainly have been very different, and may have had some great ideas of its own, but it's hard to argue with the finished product.