My Girl

Released in '91, set in '72, here comes the heart warming My Girl directed by Howard Zieff and staring a young Macaulay Culkin and Anna Chlumsky. This could very well be the first film I cried watching and one of the very first films I fell in love with. Everything about this film defines beauty; from the songs that make me wish I was born in the 70's to the extraordinary relationship between two friends.

11 year-old, motherless, Vada (Anna Chlumsky) lives in Pennsylvania with her father (Dan Aykroyd) and her grandmother, in the house that doubles as a family-run funeral parlour, which consequently gives Vada a somewhat distorted view on death. When Shelly DeVoto (Jamie Lee Curtis), a make-up artist arrives, to take up a job offer at the parlour, Vada sees her Dad turn into an unfamiliar romantic which nudges Vada towards acknowledging her own feelings. Along with her friend Thomas J, the two of them share their thoughts on life and tackle their world together, but when horrendous events occur Vada is forced to open-up, accept and come to grips with a new life of adolescence. 

It's always hard to find anything critical to say about a film you've grown up watching and have never really looked at  through a critic perspective but rather just enjoy, so I will simply have to say that the whole film is just magic. Anna Chlumsky and Macaulay Culkin do wonders for a story oozing in innocence. Only recently have I discovered that Jaime Lee Curtis stars in this film and I have to say she does a tremendous job adding some lifting moments of comedy when Shelly's ex-husband arrives to take away her home (a beloved camper van). 

Some wonderful songs illustrate this film, with The Moffatts 'Do Wah    Diddy Diddy' and The 5th Dimension 'Wedding Bell Blues'. The credits roll up with the title song, The Temptations, 1964 'My Girl'.

So in essence My Girl is a coming of age film that describes perfectly the tale of a childhood and a girl grasping life, love and loss all too quickly. It is a film that I have always been infatuated with and one that will always be among my all-time favourites.

The sequel; My Girl 2, released in 1994 follows Vada on a new adventure finding the story of a life lived by her mother.