Fairy Tale and Film

Liar Liar
(Tom 
Shadyac, 1997) revises a similar idea when a young boy, continually let 
down by another distant and highly self-interested dad, wishes for his 
father to simply be honest for a day. The wish is granted, making life 
difficult for his lawyer dad (and creating much mirth in the courtroom) 
while transforming his father into a nicer person, and a better role 
model. By the end of the film the wish has worn off yet the boy’s pow-
ers have seemingly extended to reuniting his separated parents. These 
films and other variations on the theme tell effectively the same story: 
men can mature, no matter how selfish, egotistical or ambitious they 
may be. They can improve as partners and fathers and they will benefit 

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Transformations and Male Maturation 
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in the end as better-adjusted, more fulfilled human beings.
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There is 
an obvious feel-good quality to these films, yet while their tendency to 
promote caring, sharing partnerships and family values might be seen 
as somewhat conservative, an additional set of ideas can be found in 
such stories, moving us beyond the strictly sentimental. New gender 
roles are in evidence, highlighting male nurturing skills and eschewing 
the simplistic and damaging machismo fantasies of a prior generation. 
We might also perceive a wider set of ideals underlined in a number 
of films. When characters start caring about others, beyond partners 
or their immediate family, a progressive socio-political outlook can 
be discerned. It is all very well to put one’s ego aside for loved ones 
in order to maintain a relationship, or reunite a fragmented family, 
yet when this is extended to other people, even strangers, the lessons 
learned are a great deal more inspiring. A good example is a figure who 
finds himself stuck in a small town he purportedly loathes, regarding its 
citizens with barely concealed contempt, yet undergoes an astonishing 
transformation.
We are never given a reason why the curmudgeonly Phil Connors 
(Bill Murray) in 
Groundhog Day
(Harold Ramis, 1993) is forced to live 
the same day over and over again. There are no angry witches or hokey 
magical devices hovering somewhere in the background, and his expe-
rience hardly seems to be a wish-come-true; yet it is precisely through 
being forced to stay in the town he disparages – and becoming part of 
its community – that he develops as a human being worth caring about, 
and ultimately gets the woman he loves to reciprocate his feelings.
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What brings him to Punxatawney, Pennsylvania is a meteorological 
myth, with the groundhog of the title (curiously also named Phil) 
assigned powers of prediction about the possibility of an early spring, 
yet this local superstition fails to explain the temporal repetition our 
weatherman experiences, leaving us with no explanation other than 
Fate. The narrative provides an interesting transformation for the char-
acter due to the range of responses made to his predicament. He initially 
seeks to profit from the situation by robbing a bank, seducing local 
women and overeating, yet drifts into suicidal despair when he realises 
there are no consequences for his actions (failing even to kill himself). 
It is only when he puts self-interest aside and becomes involved in the 
lives of the townspeople that he finally becomes a nicer person, earn-
ing his co-worker’s love, that his life finally moves on. Phil learns to 
pay attention to others – even those he dismisses as dumb ‘hicks’ at the 
outset of the film – he learns to put his ego aside and, crucially, he learns 
to care. One of the most poignant moments of the film is not when 

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