My Girl (film)

This article is about the 1991 film. For the 2003 Thai film, see Fan Chan.

My Girl
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Howard Zieff
Written by	Laurice Elehwany
Produced by	Brian Grazer
Starring	Dan Aykroyd Jamie Lee Curtis Macaulay Culkin Anna Chlumsky Peter Michael Goetz
Cinematography	Paul Elliot
Music by	James Newton Howard
Production company	Imagine Entertainment
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date	November 27, 1991 (1991-11-27)
Running time	102 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$17 million
Box office	$59.5 million

My Girl is a 1991 American tragicomedy film directed by Howard Zieff and written by Laurice Elehwany. The film, starring Macaulay Culkin and Anna Chlumsky in her feature film debut, depicts the coming-of-age of a young girl who faces many different emotional highs and lows. The film also stars Dan Aykroyd and Jamie Lee Curtis.

A book based on the script was written by Patricia Hermes in 1991.

Its sequel, My Girl 2, was released in 1994.

Plot

In the summer of 1972 in Madison, Pennsylvania, Vada Sultenfuss (Chlumsky) is an 11-year-old tomboyish girl and a hypochondriac. Harry Sultenfuss (Aykroyd), Vada's father, is an awkward widower who does not understand his daughter, so he constantly ignores her. His profession as a funeral director, for which the Sultenfuss' residence doubles as a funeral parlor, led Vada to develop an obsession with death. Vada regularly tends to her invalid grandmother Gramoo (Ann Nelson), who suffers from Alzheimer's disease and whose wandering mind likewise affects Vada. Harry's brother Phil (Richard Masur), who lives nearby, also stops by frequently to help out the family.

Vada hangs out with her best friend Thomas J. Sennett (Culkin), an unpopular boy her age who is allergic to "everything." However, other girls tease the two, thinking they are more than just friends. Thomas J. frequently accompanies Vada when she visits the doctor, who assures her that she is not sick and that she has no chicken bone stuck in her throat.

Vada's summer begins well. She befriends Shelly DeVoto (Curtis), the new makeup artist at her father's funeral parlor, who provides her with some much-needed guidance. She also develops a student-teacher crush on her fifth grade school teacher, Mr. Bixler, and hears about an adult poetry writing class he is teaching during the summer. Vada wants to enroll in the class to be in the presence of Mr. Bixler, so she 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, Vada fears that she killed her mother, who died two days after giving birth to her. Soon things start to fall apart.

Harry and Shelly start dating, which begins to affect Vada's attitude towards Shelly. One night, Vada follows Harry and Shelly to a bingo game and brings Thomas J. along to disrupt it. On the Fourth of July, when Shelly's ex-husband Danny shows up to claim joint ownership of the RV Shelly drives and lives in, Vada hopes that he is there to take Shelly back, but to no avail. Later, Vada becomes shocked when Harry and Shelly announce their engagement at a carnival, at which she contemplates running away with Thomas J.

Vada is starting to see changes within herself, as she is running around the house yelling that she is hemorrhaging. Shelly politely explains to Vada that her first period is a completely natural process. As Vada realizes this only occurs with girls, she doesn't want to see Thomas J., who happens to drop by shortly afterwards. A couple of days later though, Vada and Thomas J. are sitting under a tree by the river, where they experiment with an innocent first kiss.

One day in the woods, Vada and Thomas J. come across a beehive hanging from a tree, which Thomas J. decides to knock down. Vada loses her beloved mood ring in the process, so they start looking for it. But the search is cut short, as the bees start swarming from the broken hive, scaring Vada and Thomas J. away.

Thomas J. later returns alone and finds the ring. But unfortunately for him, it's too late to escape this time, as he is fatally stung by the disrupted bees from the detached hive and dies, due to being allergic to bee stings. Thomas J. also loses his glasses in the process.

Harry is then left to deliver the tragic news to Vada, which devastates her so much that she doesn't even leave her bedroom on the day of the funeral.

When Vada finally comes downstairs to Thomas J.'s funeral, her emotions become so strong that she runs away. Vada hurries to Mr. Bixler's house, wanting to stay with him, and discovers that he is about to get married to someone else. She then runs to hers and Thomas J.'s hangout spot near the tree to reflect on what has happened.

When Vada returns home, everyone is relieved to see her okay; including Shelly, whom Vada begins to accept as her future stepmother.

Vada's grief manages to mend the rift between her and her father. Harry explains to Vada that her mother's death wasn't her fault, and that mothers dying from childbirth isn't anyone's fault and things like that can happen without explanation.

Toward the end of summer, Vada and her father encounter Mrs. Sennett, who still struggles with her son's death. She gives Vada her mood ring back which Thomas J. found and Vada gives Mrs. Sennett some comfort, assuring her that her mother will take care of Thomas J.

On the last day of writing class, Vada shows up and reads a poem she wrote about the loss of her best friend.

Cast

• Dan Aykroyd as Harry Sultenfuss: Vada's father and the manager of Sultenfuss' funeral parlor in Madison, Pennsylvania.
• Jamie Lee Curtis as Shelly DeVoto: The new make-up artist at the funeral home. She is an experienced cosmetologist from Detroit, Michigan and later Harry's fiancée.
• Macaulay Culkin as Thomas J. Sennett: A fragile young boy who is allergic to "everything." He is also Vada's best friend and neighbor.
• Anna Chlumsky as Vada Sultenfuss: The central character. A tomboyish girl, full of medical issues, including a chicken bone lodged in her throat.
• Richard Masur as Phil Sultenfuss: Harry's brother and Vada's uncle. He works with Harry and gives him advice when Harry starts dating Shelly.
• Griffin Dunne as Mr. Jake Bixler: Vada's fifth grade teacher whom she has a crush on. He teaches an adult poetry writing class during the summer.
• Ann Nelson as Gramoo Sultenfuss: Vada's absent-minded grandmother and Harry and Phil's mother. She suffers from Alzheimer's disease and spends a majority of the time in a chair in the living room.

Reception

Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives a score of 50% based on reviews from 14 critics. Roger Ebert gave the film 3.5 stars out of 4. Variety wrote, "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."

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 J. 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.

Cultural references

• In the film Accepted, after Justin Long's character performs a cover of The Ramones' "Blitzkrieg Bop", he lists "not crying at the end of My Girl" as one of the things he cannot do.
• Thomas J.'s death is referred to in the The OC episode entitled "The Heights". After crying during an intense conversation with ex-girlfriend Marissa, Luke later tells her that he has not cried like that "since Macaulay Culkin died in My Girl".
• The end of heavy metal band Anthrax's 1993 album Sound of White Noise contains samples of Vada's teacher Mr. Bixler saying, "Be dangerous and unpredictable... and make a lot of noise". Anthrax singer John Bush also sings this exact phrase on Sound of White Noise b-side track "Poison My Eyes" which was released on the Last Action Hero soundtrack in 1993.
• The funeral scene in which Vada cries, "Put on his glasses! He can't see without his glasses!" over Thomas J.'s body is constantly referred to and played during the popular Philadelphia morning show Preston and Steve whenever Preston is unable to read something.

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