माय गर्ल

1972. Vada Sultenfuss (played by Anna Chlumsky) is an intelligent, bubbly, hypochondriacal 11-year old girl. Her father, Harry (Dan Aykroyd), is a mortician and a widower. Her best friend is Thomas J Sennett (Macaulay Culkin). Then her father hires a new receptionist, Shelly (Jamie Lee Curtis) and life will never be the same again.

Wonderful movie, and so much better than I expected. From the title and synopsis I thought it was going to be some sort of romantic drama made for teens/pre-teens. However, it is much much more than that. A great examination of love and loss, life, death and renewal and growing up. Very emotional, especially in the final few scenes.

Anna Chlumsky is great as Vada. Most child characters end up being irritating, as they tend to be written for children and acted in bratty fashion. Vada's character is wonderful and Anna Chlumsky, in her second movie and first major role, gives a superb performance. Sadly, unlike her co-star Macaulay Culkin, her career never really took off after this and it took until the series Veep in 2012 before she got the sort of role she deserved.

On that note, Macaulay Culkin's role is more subdued, has less screen time and less dialogue-intense than Chlumsky's. He does a solid job though.

Dan Aykroyd and Jamie Lee Curtis put in good performances too.

I recall seeing My Girl eleven years ago and fully understanding what was going on in the film. The chemistry between Culkin and Chumskly is good considering they are both kids. The film is funny and is heartbreaking because it was one of the first films to make me cry. I love this movie , but stay away from the sequel.

It's 1972 in small town Madison, Penn. Tomboy Vada Sultenfuss (Anna Chlumsky) has Thomas J (Macaulay Culkin) as her best friend. She lives with her father (Dan Aykroyd) and grandmother in their funeral parlor home. One day, Shelly DeVoto (Jamie Lee Curtis) answers an ad to do makeup for the funeral home.

Anna Chlumsky and Macaulay Culkin couldn't be any more cuter. Anna gets to have some great funny one liners. It is possibly one of the best sweetest coming-of-age story. The romance between Dan Aykroyd and Jamie Lee Curtis is also lovely. I love the bumper car scene. There is probably way too many spoilers. I guess people were afraid to be shocked. The movie handles the death with class. Don't be scared off even for the kids. It's a great movie.

'My Girl' is a rare treat in that it is a moving family drama that never descends into being overly-sentimental or cloying in the messages it's trying to deliver. It is a very bittersweet look at the joys and tears a girl faces when she stands on the cusp between childhood and adolescence.

Set over the summer of 1972, the film centres on Vada Sultenfuss, a motherless eleven-year-old tom-boy who has enough problems coping with impending adulthood on top of having to contend with her oblivious mortician father Harry and her senile grandmother Gramoo. And if things were not bad enough, Harry hires an assistant in the form of the funky Shelly leaving Vada feeling her place in her father's life is threatens by this new woman. Thankfully she is not alone as seeing her through her troubles is her loyal best friend Thomas J.

While Dan Anckroyd and Jamie Lee Curtis, as Harry and Shelley respectively, were great in their roles as two adults who both care for Vada and who have a growing attraction to each other, it was the child actors who stole the show. Anna Chlumsky, in this her film debut, delivered a first class performance as Vada, depicting the all the little nuances of the character from the confusion a tom-boy feels as she tentatively embraces her girly side in deference to her first crush to the desolation of bereavement to the loneliness she feels due to her father's thoughtless neglect. She was excellent in showing Vada's childish innocence and rare maturity that comes when a child has dealt with the harsh side to life.

Macaulay Culkin was another surprise as he portrayed the guileless Thomas J. It was a pleasant change to see him in a role other than the obnoxious kid he usually depicted in previous films such as 'Home Alone' and 'Uncle Buck', and he rose to the occasion with flare, perfectly displaying the bumbling but sensitive and caring nature of his character. His performance here proves that, had he chosen to, he could have been one of the rare few who succeed in the seamless transition from being a child actor to a teen/young adult actor.

'My Girl' is so involving for a wide age group because it not only conjures up nostalgic memories of summers gone by in adults who occasionally long for the carefree bliss of childhood but it engages younger viewers into considering the lessons of loyalty, love, loss and growing up. It definitely strikes a cord in those who are eleven years old themselves (I was eleven when I first saw this film and felt as if I could identify with Vada on many things). Most girls of eleven will probably empathise with Vada's views that nothing happens to boys! Highly recommended.

Despite being a guy, I find this movie to be a very accurate depiction of an 11-year old girl and the way she would deal with everything surrounding her. Granted, Vada is played by a girl who's 11 anyway, but remember, her dialogue was written by an adult. And speaking of kids, they do a great job! Everyone in this movie is very natural in their performance. I guess you could say there's not really a story per say, it's more of a character study than that. And it doesn't take too long for the characters to receive more development. It's just a good drama all around.