My Girl (film): Difference between revisions
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*[[Macaulay Culkin]] |
*[[Macaulay Culkin]] |
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*[[Anna Chlumsky]] |
*[[Anna Chlumsky]] |
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*[[Richard Masur]] |
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*[[Griffin Dunne]] |
*[[Griffin Dunne]] |
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*Ann Nelson |
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}} |
}} |
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| music = [[James Newton Howard]] |
| music = [[James Newton Howard]] |
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| language = English |
| language = English |
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| budget = $17 million<ref name=mojo>{{cite web|url=http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=mygirl.htm|title=My Girl|work=[[Box Office Mojo]]|accessdate=June 15, 2015}}</ref> |
| budget = $17 million<ref name=mojo>{{cite web|url=http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=mygirl.htm|title=My Girl|work=[[Box Office Mojo]]|accessdate=June 15, 2015}}</ref> |
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| gross = $121 million |
| gross = $121.5 million |
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}} |
}} |
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'''''My Girl''''' is a 1991 American [[comedy-drama|comedy-drama film]] directed by [[Howard Zieff]], written by Laurice Elehwany, starring [[Dan Aykroyd]], [[Jamie Lee Curtis]], |
'''''My Girl''''' is a 1991 American [[comedy-drama|comedy-drama film]] directed by [[Howard Zieff]], written by Laurice Elehwany, starring [[Dan Aykroyd]], [[Jamie Lee Curtis]], [[Macaulay Culkin]], *[[Richard Masur]], *[[Griffin Dunne]], and *Ann Nelson along with [[Anna Chlumsky]] in her feature debut. It is a [[coming-of-age]] story of a young girl who faces many different emotional highs and lows during the summer of 1972 in suburban [[Pennsylvania]]. |
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A book based on the script was written by Patricia Hermes in 1991.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/mygirlnovel00herm|title=My Girl|last=Hermes|first=Patricia|last2=Elehwany|first2=Laurice|year=1991|publisher=Pocket Books|isbn=978-0-671-75929-2|edition=FIRST EDITION 4th Printing|location=New York|language=English|url-access=registration}}</ref> The film's [[sequel]], ''[[My Girl 2]]'', was released in 1994. |
A book based on the script was written by Patricia Hermes in 1991.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/mygirlnovel00herm|title=My Girl|last=Hermes|first=Patricia|last2=Elehwany|first2=Laurice|year=1991|publisher=Pocket Books|isbn=978-0-671-75929-2|edition=FIRST EDITION 4th Printing|location=New York|language=English|url-access=registration}}</ref> The film's [[sequel]], ''[[My Girl 2]]'', was released in 1994. |
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==Plot== |
==Plot== |
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Vada Sultenfuss is an 11-year-old girl living in Madison, Pennsylvania, during the summer of 1972. Harry, |
Vada Sultenfuss is an 11-year-old girl living in Madison, Pennsylvania, during the summer of 1972. Harry, Vada's father, is a widowed funeral director who does not understand Vada, so he constantly ignores her. Their house, which operates as the town [[funeral home]], has led Vada to develop an obsession with death. Vada regularly cares for her paternal grandmother, 'Gramoo', who has [[Alzheimer's disease]] and whose wandering mind likewise affects Vada. Vada's uncle, Phil lives nearby and frequently stops by to help the family. |
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Vada is a [[hypochondriasis|hypochondriac]] and spends time with her best friend, Thomas |
Vada is a [[hypochondriasis|hypochondriac]] and spends time with her best friend, Thomas Sennett, an unpopular boy her age who suffers from various [[allergy|allergies]]. However, other girls tease the two about being more than just friends. Thomas often accompanies Vada when she visits the doctor, who assures her that she is not sick. |
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Vada |
Vada befriends Shelly DeVoto, the new makeup artist at Harry's funeral parlor, who provides her with guidance. Vada also develops a crush on her fifth-grade school teacher, Mr. Bixler, and hears about an adult poetry writing class that he is teaching. Vada steals some money from the cookie jar in Shelly's trailer to cover the cost of the class. When advised to write about what is in her soul, it emerges that Vada fears that she killed her mother, who died two days after giving birth to her. |
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When Harry and Shelly start dating, this affects Vada's attitude towards Shelly. One night, Vada follows the pair to a bingo game and brings Thomas |
When Harry and Shelly start dating, this affects Vada's attitude towards Shelly. One night, Vada follows the pair to a bingo game and brings Thomas along to disrupt it. On the Fourth of July, when Shelly's ex-husband Danny arrives, Vada hopes that he is there to take Shelly back and becomes even more distressed when Harry and Shelly announce their engagement at a carnival, leading her to contemplate running away with Thomas. |
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Vada is starting to see changes within herself. She runs around screaming that she is hemorrhaging until Shelly explains to her that her [[Menarche|first period]] is a completely natural process. As Vada realizes this only occurs with girls, she doesn't want to see Thomas |
Vada is starting to see changes within herself. She runs around screaming that she is hemorrhaging until Shelly explains to her that her [[Menarche|first period]] is a completely natural process. As Vada realizes this only occurs with girls, she doesn't want to see Thomas, who happens to come by shortly afterward. A couple of days later, Vada and Thomas are sitting under a tree by a river, where they share an innocent first kiss. |
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Vada and Thomas |
Vada and Thomas come across a bees' nest hanging from a tree, which Thomas decides to knock down. Vada loses her [[mood ring]] in the process, so they start looking for it, but the search is cut short as the bees start swarming, making them run away. Thomas later returns to find the ring but because he kicks the bees' nest while doing so, he is stung and dies from an [[Anaphylaxis|allergic reaction]]. |
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Harry is left to deliver the news to Vada, which upsets her so much that she will not even leave her bedroom. When she does attend Thomas |
Harry is left to deliver the news to Vada, which upsets her so much that she will not even leave her bedroom. When she does attend Thomas's funeral, she has to run away, but on hurrying to Mr. Bixler's house she discovers that he is about to get married. She then runs to her and Thomas's favorite spot to reflect on what has happened. |
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When Vada returns home, everyone is relieved, including Shelly, whom Vada begins to accept as her future stepmother. |
When Vada returns home, everyone is relieved, including Shelly, whom Vada begins to accept as her future stepmother. Vada's grief also manages to mend the rift between her and Harry, who explains to Vada that her mother's death wasn't her fault and things like that can happen without explanation. |
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Toward the end of summer, Vada and |
Toward the end of summer, Vada and Harry see Mrs. Sennett, who still struggles with Thomas's death. She gives Vada the mood ring that Thomas had found and Vada gives Mrs. Sennett comfort. On the last day of writing class, Vada reads a poem she wrote about the loss of her best friend and then goes out to spend time with her new best friend, Judy. |
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==Cast== |
==Cast== |
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*[[Dan Aykroyd]] as Harry Sultenfuss |
*[[Dan Aykroyd]] as Harry Sultenfuss |
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*[[Jamie Lee Curtis]] as Shelly DeVoto |
*[[Jamie Lee Curtis]] as Shelly DeVoto |
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*[[Macaulay Culkin]] as Thomas |
*[[Macaulay Culkin]] as Thomas Sennett |
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*[[Anna Chlumsky]] as Vada Sultenfuss |
*[[Anna Chlumsky]] as Vada Sultenfuss |
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*[[Richard Masur]] as Phil Sultenfuss |
*[[Richard Masur]] as Phil Sultenfuss |
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*[[Griffin Dunne]] as Mr. Bixler |
*[[Griffin Dunne]] as Mr. Bixler |
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*Ann Nelson as Gramoo Sultenfuss |
*Ann Nelson as Gramoo Sultenfuss |
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==Production== |
==Production== |
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The screenplay, written by Laurice Elehwany, was originally titled ''Born Jaundiced'', and was purchased by [[Imagine Entertainment]] in July 1990.<ref name=afi/> On August 24, 1990, it was reported in ''Daily Variety'' that the screenplay had been re-titled to ''I Am Woman'', but was subsequently changed to its final title, ''My Girl'', in the spring of 1991.<ref name=afi/> Elehwany based the fictional setting of Madison, Pennsylvania, on an unnamed small town in southern Pennsylvania, where she had been raised.<ref name=afi/> |
The screenplay, written by Laurice Elehwany, was originally titled ''Born Jaundiced'', and was purchased by [[Imagine Entertainment]] in July 1990.<ref name=afi/> On August 24, 1990, it was reported in ''Daily Variety'' that the screenplay had been re-titled to ''I Am Woman'', but was subsequently changed to its final title, ''My Girl'', in the spring of 1991.<ref name=afi/> Elehwany based the fictional setting of Madison, Pennsylvania, on an unnamed small town in southern Pennsylvania, where she had been raised.<ref name=afi/> |
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Culkin and Chlumsky were cast in the lead |
Culkin and Chlumsky were cast in the lead roles of Thomas and Vada, respectively, in January 1991.<ref name=afi/> Filming took place in [[Bartow, Florida|Bartow]] and [[Orlando, Florida]], beginning in February 1991.<ref name=afi/> Exteriors of the Sultenfuss home were supplied by a real Victorian home in Bartow, while the house's interiors were built on a soundstage in Orlando.<ref name=afi/> |
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==Release== |
==Release== |
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When ''My Girl'' was submitted to the [[Motion Picture Association of America]] (MPAA) in September 1991, it was given a [[PG-13]]-rating.<ref name=afi/> Later that month, the film's producers won an appeal to have the film reclassified to a PG-rating.<ref name=afi/> |
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''My Girl'' |
''My Girl'' was released on November 27, 1991.<ref name=afi>{{cite web|work=[[AFI Catalog of Feature Films]]|url=https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/58950?sid=8b691888-ea97-4439-a6ce-3376eda3748a&sr=2.8932664&cp=1&pos=0|title=My Girl|accessdate=September 7, 2018}}</ref> It opened at number 2 with $12.4 million.<ref name=mojo/> and grossed $59.5 million domestically<ref name=mojo/>and $62 million internationally<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|date=February 22, 1993|page=85|title=Hollywood Wows World Wickets|last=Groves|first=Don}}</ref> for a worldwide total of $121.5 million. |
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===Critical response=== |
===Critical response=== |
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==Music== |
==Music== |
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The soundtrack of the film contains several 1960s and 1970s pop hits in addition to [[My Girl (The Temptations song)|the title song]] (by [[The Temptations]]), including "[[Wedding Bell Blues]]" ([[The 5th Dimension]]), "[[If You Don't Know Me by Now]]" ([[Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes]]), "[[Bad Moon Rising]]" ([[Creedence Clearwater Revival]]), "[[Good Lovin' (The Young Rascals song)|Good Lovin']]" ([[The Rascals]]), and "[[Saturday in the Park (song)|Saturday in the Park]]" ([[Chicago (band)|Chicago]]). When Vada gets upset, she plugs her ears and sings "[[Do Wah Diddy Diddy]]", the [[Manfred Mann]] version of which is also included on the soundtrack album. In addition, Vada and Thomas |
The soundtrack of the film contains several 1960s and 1970s pop hits in addition to [[My Girl (The Temptations song)|the title song]] (by [[The Temptations]]), including "[[Wedding Bell Blues]]" ([[The 5th Dimension]]), "[[If You Don't Know Me by Now]]" ([[Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes]]), "[[Bad Moon Rising]]" ([[Creedence Clearwater Revival]]), "[[Good Lovin' (The Young Rascals song)|Good Lovin']]" ([[The Rascals]]), and "[[Saturday in the Park (song)|Saturday in the Park]]" ([[Chicago (band)|Chicago]]). When Vada gets upset, she plugs her ears and sings "[[Do Wah Diddy Diddy]]", the [[Manfred Mann]] version of which is also included on the soundtrack album. In addition, Vada and Thomas play "[[The Name Game]]" and sing "[[Witch Doctor (song)|Witch Doctor]]" in the film, and Vada has posters of the Broadway musical [[Hair (musical)|''Hair'']], [[the Carpenters]], and [[Donny Osmond]] on her bedroom wall. |
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==References== |
==References== |
Revision as of 21:03, 15 January 2020
My Girl | |
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![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Howard Zieff |
Written by | Laurice Elehwany |
Produced by | Brian Grazer |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Paul Elliott |
Edited by | Wendy Greene Bricmont |
Music by | James Newton Howard |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 102 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $17 million[1] |
Box office | $121.5 million |
My Girl is a 1991 American comedy-drama film directed by Howard Zieff, written by Laurice Elehwany, starring Dan Aykroyd, Jamie Lee Curtis, Macaulay Culkin, *Richard Masur, *Griffin Dunne, and *Ann Nelson along with Anna Chlumsky in her feature debut. It is a coming-of-age story of a young girl who faces many different emotional highs and lows during the summer of 1972 in suburban Pennsylvania.
A book based on the script was written by Patricia Hermes in 1991.[2] The film's sequel, My Girl 2, was released in 1994.
Plot
Vada Sultenfuss is an 11-year-old girl living in Madison, Pennsylvania, during the summer of 1972. Harry, Vada's father, is a widowed funeral director who does not understand Vada, so he constantly ignores her. Their house, which operates as the town funeral home, has led Vada to develop an obsession with death. Vada regularly cares for her paternal grandmother, 'Gramoo', who has Alzheimer's disease and whose wandering mind likewise affects Vada. Vada's uncle, Phil lives nearby and frequently stops by to help the family.
Vada is a hypochondriac and spends time with her best friend, Thomas Sennett, an unpopular boy her age who suffers from various allergies. However, other girls tease the two about being more than just friends. Thomas often accompanies Vada when she visits the doctor, who assures her that she is not sick.
Vada befriends Shelly DeVoto, the new makeup artist at Harry's funeral parlor, who provides her with guidance. Vada also develops a crush on her fifth-grade school teacher, Mr. Bixler, and hears about an adult poetry writing class that he is teaching. Vada steals some money from the cookie jar in Shelly's trailer to cover the cost of the class. When advised to write about what is in her soul, it emerges that Vada fears that she killed her mother, who died two days after giving birth to her.
When Harry and Shelly start dating, this affects Vada's attitude towards Shelly. One night, Vada follows the pair to a bingo game and brings Thomas along to disrupt it. On the Fourth of July, when Shelly's ex-husband Danny arrives, Vada hopes that he is there to take Shelly back and becomes even more distressed when Harry and Shelly announce their engagement at a carnival, leading her to contemplate running away with Thomas.
Vada is starting to see changes within herself. She runs around screaming that she is hemorrhaging until Shelly explains to her that her first period is a completely natural process. As Vada realizes this only occurs with girls, she doesn't want to see Thomas, who happens to come by shortly afterward. A couple of days later, Vada and Thomas are sitting under a tree by a river, where they share an innocent first kiss.
Vada and Thomas come across a bees' nest hanging from a tree, which Thomas decides to knock down. Vada loses her mood ring in the process, so they start looking for it, but the search is cut short as the bees start swarming, making them run away. Thomas later returns to find the ring but because he kicks the bees' nest while doing so, he is stung and dies from an allergic reaction.
Harry is left to deliver the news to Vada, which upsets her so much that she will not even leave her bedroom. When she does attend Thomas's funeral, she has to run away, but on hurrying to Mr. Bixler's house she discovers that he is about to get married. She then runs to her and Thomas's favorite spot to reflect on what has happened.
When Vada returns home, everyone is relieved, including Shelly, whom Vada begins to accept as her future stepmother. Vada's grief also manages to mend the rift between her and Harry, who explains to Vada that her mother's death wasn't her fault and things like that can happen without explanation.
Toward the end of summer, Vada and Harry see Mrs. Sennett, who still struggles with Thomas's death. She gives Vada the mood ring that Thomas had found and Vada gives Mrs. Sennett comfort. On the last day of writing class, Vada reads a poem she wrote about the loss of her best friend and then goes out to spend time with her new best friend, Judy.
Cast
- Dan Aykroyd as Harry Sultenfuss
- Jamie Lee Curtis as Shelly DeVoto
- Macaulay Culkin as Thomas Sennett
- Anna Chlumsky as Vada Sultenfuss
- Richard Masur as Phil Sultenfuss
- Griffin Dunne as Mr. Bixler
- Ann Nelson as Gramoo Sultenfuss
Production
The screenplay, written by Laurice Elehwany, was originally titled Born Jaundiced, and was purchased by Imagine Entertainment in July 1990.[3] On August 24, 1990, it was reported in Daily Variety that the screenplay had been re-titled to I Am Woman, but was subsequently changed to its final title, My Girl, in the spring of 1991.[3] Elehwany based the fictional setting of Madison, Pennsylvania, on an unnamed small town in southern Pennsylvania, where she had been raised.[3]
Culkin and Chlumsky were cast in the lead roles of Thomas and Vada, respectively, in January 1991.[3] Filming took place in Bartow and Orlando, Florida, beginning in February 1991.[3] Exteriors of the Sultenfuss home were supplied by a real Victorian home in Bartow, while the house's interiors were built on a soundstage in Orlando.[3]
Release
When My Girl was submitted to the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) in September 1991, it was given a PG-13-rating.[3] Later that month, the film's producers won an appeal to have the film reclassified to a PG-rating.[3]
My Girl was released on November 27, 1991.[3] It opened at number 2 with $12.4 million.[1] and grossed $59.5 million domestically[1]and $62 million internationally[4] for a worldwide total of $121.5 million.
Critical response
Roger Ebert gave the film 3.5 stars out of 4, writing: "The beauty in this film is in its directness. There are some obligatory scenes. But there are also some very original and touching ones. This is a movie that has its heart in the right place."[5] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly praised Chlumsky's performance in the film, but conceded that "there’s something discomforting about a movie that takes the experience of an audacious, conflicted child and reduces it to: She needs to Confront Her Feelings. My Girl has some sweet, funny moments (the cast is uniformly appealing), yet it unfolds in a landscape of paralyzing, pop-psych banality."[6]
Film critic Caryn James cited the film as being part of a "trend toward stronger, more realistic themes in children's films", specifically its representations of death, specifically that of a young child.[7] David Kehr of the Chicago Tribune wrote of the film: "If My Girl helps stimulate family discussions of death and loss, it will certainly have done some good in the world. But at the same time, its aesthetic interest is virtually nil... Though My Girl seeks to stir large, devastating emotions, Zieff seems afraid to touch on anything too difficult or unpleasant, lest it alienate his audience. The results are curiously gutless and unmoving, as Zieff finds himself stuck with a sentimentality without substance, a poetry without pain."[8] Peter Rainer of the Los Angeles Times was similarly critical of the film's "syrupy" elements, concluding: "The mixture of winsomeness and deadpan frights in My Girl ought to be weirder and more interesting than it is. After all, a girl who survives a household where bodies are embalmed in the basement is the kind of plucky heroine that movies about kids need right now. Or movies about adults, for that matter."[9]
Janet Maslin of The New York Times was critical of the screenplay for being made up of "loose ends bound together only by intimations of mortality and family crisis," summarizing: "It's not hard for the maudlin My Girl to make its audience weepy at the sight of America's favorite kid in an open coffin. But it is difficult for this film to mix the sugary unreality of a television show with such a clumsy and manipulative morbid streak."[10] Variety noted: "Plenty of shrewd commercial calculation went into concocting the right sugar coating for this story of an 11-year-old girl's painful maturation, but [the] chemistry seems right."[11]
Music
The soundtrack of the film contains several 1960s and 1970s pop hits in addition to the title song (by The Temptations), including "Wedding Bell Blues" (The 5th Dimension), "If You Don't Know Me by Now" (Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes), "Bad Moon Rising" (Creedence Clearwater Revival), "Good Lovin'" (The Rascals), and "Saturday in the Park" (Chicago). When Vada gets upset, she plugs her ears and sings "Do Wah Diddy Diddy", the Manfred Mann version of which is also included on the soundtrack album. In addition, Vada and Thomas play "The Name Game" and sing "Witch Doctor" in the film, and Vada has posters of the Broadway musical Hair, the Carpenters, and Donny Osmond on her bedroom wall.
References
- ^ a b c "My Girl". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved June 15, 2015.
- ^ Hermes, Patricia; Elehwany, Laurice (1991). My Girl (FIRST EDITION 4th Printing ed.). New York: Pocket Books. ISBN 978-0-671-75929-2.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i "My Girl". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. Retrieved September 7, 2018.
- ^ Groves, Don (February 22, 1993). "Hollywood Wows World Wickets". Variety. p. 85.
- ^ Ebert, Roger (November 27, 1991). "My Girl". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved June 15, 2015 – via RogerEbert.com.
- ^ Gleiberman, Owen (December 6, 1991). "My Girl". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved August 29, 2018.
- ^ James, Caryn (December 1, 1991). "FILM VIEW; Reality Comes With the Popcorn". The New York Times. Retrieved August 30, 2018.
- ^ Kehr, David (November 27, 1991). "`My Girl` Wallows In Weeping Generalizations". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved September 7, 2018.
- ^ Rainer, Peter (November 27, 1991). "MOVIE REVIEW : A Conventional 'My Girl' Brings Out the Hankies". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 5, 2018.
- ^ Maslin, Janet (November 27, 1991). "Review/Film; Growing Up Surrounded By Death". The New York Times. Retrieved August 30, 2018.
- ^ "Review: 'My Girl'". Variety. 1991. Retrieved June 15, 2015.
External links
- My Girl at AllMovie
- My Girl at Box Office Mojo
- My Girl at IMDb
- My Girl at the TCM Movie Database
- My Girl at Rotten Tomatoes
- 1991 films
- American films
- American coming-of-age films
- American comedy-drama films
- American romantic drama films
- Columbia Pictures films
- English-language films
- Films scored by James Newton Howard
- Films directed by Howard Zieff
- Films produced by Brian Grazer
- Films set in 1972
- Films set in Pennsylvania
- Films shot in Florida
- Funeral homes in fiction
- Imagine Entertainment films
- Tragicomedy films
- Films about death