My Girl

Vada Sultenfuss (Anna Chlumsky) lives with Harry (Dan Aykroyd), her widowed father, a mortician who embalms bodies in the basement of the small-town Pennsylvania home he shares with his precocious daughter. Vada is a tomboy who fishes, climbs trees and races her bike with Thomas J. Sennett (Macaulay Culkin), her best friend and a boy her age. She's also a hypochondriac, who imagines herself suffering from a variety of ailments, all of which are inspired by the fatal illnesses her father's "clients" have passed away from. Far more real are the feelings of guilt Vada, an only child, has regarding her mother, who died in childbirth. Vada considers herself responsible for that death and, in her yearning to express her innermost feelings, she turns to writing.

Conning the money needed to enter a writing class taught by the handsome young Mr. Bixler (Griffin Dunne), on whom she has a crush, Vada expresses her woes in verse. The condition of her grandmother (Ann Nelson), an all-but-comatose individual who bursts into song at the most inopportune moments, doesn't help distract Vada from her already abnormal preoccupation with disease and death.

Vada loves her father and it comes as an almost overwhelming shock to her sensibilities when he starts to date Shelly DeVoto (Jamie Lee Curtis), a striking young hippie whom Harry meets when she arrives seeking employment as a cosmetologist, but who ends up accepting the job of morgue beautician. Jealousy rears its ugly head when Vada begins to feel left out of her dad's life. Fortunately, Shelly thoroughly understands Vada's feelings and she makes every effort to befriend the girl.

Meanwhile, Vada seeks comfort from Thomas. Together, the two experience the rare benefits of friendship, both at play and, eventually, during the slightly more serious act of exploring the idea of what it might be like to kiss each other. That feat accomplished by a quiet lake, the pair resume their carefree existence, a summer idyll that neither suspects will end so soon.

While Vada continues to envision herself suffering from multiple diseases, it is Thomas J. who is, in reality, the delicate one, for this serious, shy little boy suffers from a variety of allergies, including an allergy to bee stings. One morning, while searching for a lost trinket belonging to Vada, Thomas J. returns to the beehive in the woods where he and his playmate stole honey. Strolling too close to the hive, Thomas J. suffers fatal consequences. Now it is up to Vada to be strong and face, as best she can, the shock and horror of the loss of her dearest friend--and the permanent void that loss is going to bring. Happily, a new girl, Vada's age, moves into the neighborhood and some of the void is filled.

Perhaps MY GIRL isn't as original as it might have been, but had director Howard Zieff opted for stark, gritty realism and played out its heavy theme of childhood loss to the hilt, it is highly unlikely the film would be palatable entertainment for any member of the family, let alone impressionable children. Admittedly, the film would have benefited from a better balance of humor and pathos and, in some areas, it might have delved into certain aspects of human relationships a little deeper and with more breadth of vision. The film also suffers from Vada's morbid, heavy-handed preoccupation with death and disease.

Still, while no masterpiece, MY GIRL is a fine example of compassionate and tasteful filmmaking which features a number of charming moments, most of which are provided by Anna Chlumsky and Macaulay Culkin, while Dan Aykroyd (in a mildly eccentric but subdued role reminiscent of his recent turn in DRIVING MISS DAISY) and Jamie Lee Curtis lend able support. Despite the bona fide star status he's attained since HOME ALONE, Culkin proves to be a good sport, taking a back seat to newcomer Chlumsky's scene-stealing performance. Even though his is really a supporting role, Culkin holds his own and the pair are absolutely adorable in their relatively few scenes together. (Mild profanity, adult situations.) leave a comment