Review: My Girl

Set in the early 70s, Anna Chlumsky stars as 11 year-old Vada Sultenfuss, daughter of a widowed mortician (Dan Aykroyd), and the mother who died giving birth to her. Vada, who has developed an obsession with death and illness, has one true friend in the whole world, the sensitive Thomas J. (Macaulay Culkin). She also has a sweet crush on her English teacher (Griffin Dunne). Vada has a negative reaction to her father re-entering the dating world with his newest employee, hippie beautician Shelly (Jamie Lee Curtis). However, it’s Shelly who first notices that Vada is at that ‘special’ age, while her father is completely oblivious, and probably not equipped to deal with it anyway. Richard Masur turns up as Vada’s likeable uncle.

What a sweet, funny, sad, and underrated film this 1991 Howard Zieff (the highly underrated comedy “The Dream Team”) coming of age film may be fronted by a girl, but this is no ‘chick flick’ by any stretch of the imagination. It’s for everyone, and the only people who don’t like this film haven’t seen it. Hell, I like it more now at age 37 than when I saw it at age 11-12. It’s great to see Anna Chlumsky back at work on TV’s “Veep”, because here in her big starring debut, she proved herself if not a great actress, to at least be charismatic and perfect in what is the lead role. It was only her second film performance (she appeared briefly in 1989’s “Uncle Buck”, oddly enough co-starring Macaulay Culkin who plays support here), and her first lead role. That’s no easy assignment and she acquits herself very well. She has lots of charm and charisma. Cast the wrong girl, and the whole film pretty much collapses right off the bat. She (and the film itself) proves to give a sensitive portrayal of a young girl who through unfortunate circumstance never met her mother. She has never seen her father with another woman. Then he falls in love, and she doesn’t get it at all. Chlumsky conveys all of this very well.

Macaulay Culkin actually gives the best performance of his adolescent career here, much as I enjoyed his work in the underrated “The Good Son”. Playing the sensitive best friend, it’s a quiet and low-key but effective performance. The entire cast is spot-on actually, with Dan Aykroyd as Chlumsky’s well-meaning but clueless widowed father, Jamie Lee Curtis perfect as the new maternal presence in Chlumsky’s life, and Griffin Dunne as the nice guy teacher she has a crush on, standing out most. I always say I’m not a Jamie Lee Curtis fan particularly, yet I can’t think of too many times where I haven’t loved or at least liked her. I guess I’m a fan after all. Meanwhile, Richard Masur is terrific as Aykroyd’s brother. His first scene is a riot, he looks like he’s about to have a heart attack jumping rope. Look out for an absolutely hilarious and goofy Tom Villard as a hippie wannabe writer. I’d forgotten just how funny this film is, its tone isn’t too far removed from my favourite TV show “The Wonder Years”, which is also nostalgic of course and has the main character narrate the story. Perhaps the biggest laugh in the entire film comes from Chlumsky’s addled-brained grandmother’s fondness for singing old tunes at the oddest of times. Chlumsky’s own inability to sing is pretty amusing too, actually.

On the sad side of things, all I’ll say is that I bet a lot of young girls had their ‘Bambi’s mother’ moment in this film. In saying that, it still gets to this 37 year-old male, too. Yes, I teared up at the appropriate moment then and now. And by the appropriate moment, I’m actually talking about a line from Chlumsky to a grieving person. It broke me. Speaking of lines, Chlumsky also gets a great line at the end about Nixon that was hopefully meant ironically.

It’s important for young girls to have their voices and experiences represented, and although I’m neither young nor female, I think this is one of the best films with a young female audience in mind. In fact, unless you’re a total cynic with the hardest of hearts, it should reach anyone of any age or gender. Good movies are good movies. This is nice, you’ll like it. It makes me smile, even when parts of it are sad. Scripted by Laurice Elehwany, a first-timer (best known in the literary world) who sadly didn’t go on to much in the industry unless you consider “The Brady Bunch Movie” particularly noteworthy.

Rating: B