Over & Overs: "My Girl"
Tuesday, December 24, 2019 at 3:33PM Over & Overs is a series where we talk about movies we've watched countless times.
by Camila Henriques
I don't recall the first time I watched My Girl, but I do remember where I've seen it the most. This Howard Zieff-directed coming of age drama was a fixture on TV as I was growing up, and, for the past 25+ years, it has been for sure one of these films that becomes something new with every rewatch.
Probably best known for being Macaulay Culkin's first on-screen kiss, My Girl tells the story of Vada (Anna Chlumsky, in her breakout role), a 11 year old girl experiencing change in various ways whilst being surrounded by death: her widowed father falls in love again, her grandmother is in that there-but-not-there situation, and, of course, she goes through her first love - and heartbreak...
In Portuguese - aka my mother language - My Girl was translated as an equivalent of "My First Love" (with its sequel being called "My First Love - part 2", hahaha). It's not the best title as it doesn't truly express what the film means. More than a film about finding love for the first time, it's a story about self discovery.
Vada and the movie's relationship with death were depicted in a fine 2016 article by Laura Adamczyk at The AV Club:
"My Girl makes death, illness, and other painful life transitions seem more palatable (or at least bearable) to its main audience: children. Indeed, it’s amazing to consider today all that the movie packs in: puberty, a future stepmom entering the picture, dementia, and death, death, death—all delivered through quirky details that ease viewers in before dealing heavier (and ultimately melodramatic) emotional blows"
Quirky is the word for Vada. She's not like most kids her age. As she has always been surrounded by adults (and death), the wise-beyond-her-years archetype is truly understandable: she was the main female figure in the house, nothwithstanding her ill grandma.
In that sense, Anna Chlumsky plays the character to perfection, ticking all the boxes that make Vada unique: her wide-eyed gaze as her poetry teacher talks, the way she (sort of) juggles her curiosity and contempt towards Shelley (Jamie Lee Curtis, who brings a mix of charm and warm into the picture), the ease she has while talking about death and, finally, how she blends all these characteristics with an unsettling nonchalance whenever she interacts with Thomas J. (played by Culkin).
When My Girl premiered, "Mac" was already the most famous child star in the world, with a couple of box office hits, a Golden Globe nod and a Michael Jackson videoclip in his resumè. In fact, Howard Zieff's film premiered a year after Home Alone made little Mr Culkin a star. Albeit very different in themes, these two films are examples of what made him so compelling to see onscreen. As a kid, he is obviously vulnerable and innocent. But, if in Home Alone he lives our dream life quite like another John Hughes creation - Ferris Bueller, that is -, in My Girl his dynamic with Chlumsky has us feeling protective and nostalgic, thinking about our own life experiences within that sweet realm of first love.
And when things seem to be going smoothly, the film hits us with the inevitable. The allergic and always sick Thomas J. is stung by a large number of bees and dies. Vada goes through her most real experience yet. Chlumky's acting in the wake scene ('where are his glasses?' is a 'give her the shot!' for younger audiences) sensibly brings the character into a new level, with a feeling she never experienced before: desperation.
Our girl has changed through pain and death, something she thought she knew. That experience puts things in perspective and she discovers she can cherish life in differenf ways, without being put on a single box. The final shot of the film is an example of that: Vada is riding a bike not by herself and (unfortunately) not with Thomas, but with a (girl)friend. As we say goodbye to her, a song starts blazing, with the singer saying he's got sunshine on a cloudy day. Thomas maybe was that sunshine to Vada's existence, but the contrary is also plausible. At the end of the day, this tale is not about first love, but about discovering the pure joy of sharing your world with others.
The two main characters really spoke to me when I was growing up, as I felt basically like a mix of Vada and Thomas J. I do not have any allergies but I did grow up a shy and scared kid (no traumas, just your typical apartment-raised daughter), while also being constantly attracted to music and films that I didn’t really understand at 10, since they weren’t really made for someone my age (an exampl: my parents took me to see Live Flesh by Almodóvar right around this time! To their defense, they were totally clueless about the synopsis of the movie). So I’ve always felt a connection to My Girl, especially that maybe pretentious aura that Vada had.
At the same time, there was the envy of seeing kids ride around that town in bikes. Being raised inside an apartment made nothing for my case - my childhood lacked that playfulness that was such a part of those kids’ lives. My other favorites around that time were films like Now and Then and Stand By Me - up until this day, I’m a sucker for those “coming of age” titles (hello, Lady Bird and Boyhood). Maybe it’s the constant feeling they give off of “it’s only beginning” or their gentel “it’s ok to make mistakes” feel, maybe it’s just the fond memories I have of them, but whenever My Girl and its sequel are on TV, I’m still searching for that sunshine on a cloudy day.
Previously in Over & Overs...
- Sense & Sensibility (1995) by Claudio
- Moonstruck (1987) by Deborah
- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) by Lynn
- Sister Act (1992) by Kyndall
- The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) by Mark
- To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything Julie Newmar (1995) by Chris
- Sugar & Spice (2001) by Spencer
- Marie Antoinette (2006) by Claudio
- Julie & Julia (2009) by Ginny
- Moonrise Kingdom (2012) by Ginny
Reader Comments (4)
That scene where she says "where are his glasses" killed me as a kid. I was 11 when I first saw it. Oh God, that was devastating.
Confession. I have never seen this movie but it was always playing on TV at this one pizza/video shop i worked in in the 1990s so I bet it would *feel* as if I had already seen it if i finally did watch it.
I always felt that Anna Chlumsky’s performance deserved one of those (retired since 1960) Honorable ‘Best Juvenile Performance’ Academy Awards.
A lovely write up.