My Girl is a 1991 coming-of-age comedy-drama film directed by Howard Zieff and starring Anna Chlumsky, Macaulay Culkin, Dan Aykroyd and Jamie Lee Curtis. Set in the summer of 1972, the film revolves around Vada Sultenfuss (Chlumsky), an 11-year-old girl living with her father (Aykroyd). Vada is obsessed with death. Her mother is dead, and her dad owns a funeral parlor. Her best friend, Thomas J. Sennett (Culkin) has various allergies and her father falls in love with makeup expert Shelly DeVoto (Curtis) whom he hires for the parlor. Vada tries everything she can to split them up while sticking around with Thomas J. for some various adventures...
The film's success spawned a sequel in 1994.
Tropes associated with this movie:
- The '70s: The movie takes place in 1972 and features some era staples such as holdover hippies like Shelly's ex and Vada's plot-relevant mood ring (though mood rings technically didn't exist yet).
- Actor Allusion:
- Jamie Lee Curtis and Dan Aykroyd previously were romantically involved in Trading Places.
- Vada gets locked in a room with a dead body, so it seems rather curious that Jamie Lee Curtis - the horror movie Final Girl in the 80s - would save her.
- Almost Kiss: Between Harry and Shelly, before Vada intervenes.
- Anachronism Stew:
- Pretty impressive that Vada lost a mood ring in 1972 considering they weren't invented until 1975.
- Harry claims that he danced the frug in high school. That's a dance from 1964, and he's old enough to have an eleven-year-old daughter in 1972. There is no way he could have been in high school in '64. Indeed, he mentions in another scene that he hasn't dated in twenty years, which would place his high school years in 1952 at the latest. If anything, he would have been dancing the jitterbug back then.
- Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: Thomas J and Vada snipe at each other plenty of times, but do ultimately share a kiss.
- Back-to-Back Poster: The poster has main character Vada and Thomas J., who serves as her best friend and possible Love Interest, back to back.
- Bittersweet Ending: Thomas J. unexpectedly dies and Vada’s outlook on life is forever changed with that loss of innocence, but she learns to cherish the good memories she had with him as a friend, patch things up with Harry, become more accepting of Shelley in Harry’s life and gets a new friend in Judy while moving forward with her emotional growth.
- Blind Without 'Em: Thomas J. needs his large glasses to see much of anything, and this is repeatedly mentioned. The sentiment makes a heartbreaking comeback when Vada walks into Thomas's funeral and breaks down upon seeing him in his casket minus glasses, crying and begging someone to give them back to him because he can't see without them.
- Break the Cutie: Vada. Especially after her best friend dies and her crush marries someone else the same day of the funeral.
- Captain Obvious: While watching Shelly and her ex-husband arguing, Vada's uncle remarks, "These two people do not have a good relationship."
- Chekhov's Armoury: There's a whole bunch, including the child-sized coffin, Vada's mood ring, Thomas J's allergies, and the fact that Vada lives in a funeral home.
- Chekhov's Gun: Thomas J.'s allergy to everything and the beehive.
- Comically Missing the Point: Thomas J. reminds Vada that she can't marry her teacher because it's against the law: "he'll give you all A's!"
- Coming of Age Story: During the film Vada learns about the nature of love, copes with her father remarrying and the concept of death.
- Cool Uncle: Vada's uncle Phil, a Vietnam vet who had a metal plate put in his head, is like another father to Vada.
- Creepy Basement: Considering the house is a funeral parlor and the basement is used to embalm the corpses, Vada gets suitably scared when she's accidentally locked down there.
- Dark Reprise: Veda sings "Do Wah Diddy Diddy" by Manfred Mann a couple of times. She sings it again frantically when she gets trapped in the basement which is used as a mortuary.
- Date Peepers: Vada and Thomas J follow Vada's Father and Shelley on the Bingo date. She yells "Bingo!" in from the window and Hilarity Ensues.
- Dead Hat Shot: There's a shot of the bee-allergic Thomas Jay Sennett's glasses falling on the ground after he is fatally stung by the Scary Stinging Swarm that he and Vada riled up earlier.
- Death by Childbirth: Vada's mother passed away from complications a few days after Vada's birth, which Vada blames herself for.
- Death of a Child: Poor Thomas J. He's allergic to bees and succumbs to being stung by them.
- Dropped Glasses: When Thomas J. is fatally attacked by a bee swarm, the camera focuses on his fallen glasses and bees crawling over them as a Discretion Shot to his actual death.
- First Kiss: Vada and Thomas J. share a brief kiss as well as making a Childhood Marriage Promise. Notable for winning the first ever "Best Kiss" award at the 1992 MTV Movie Awards. Heck, in Latin American countries the movie is known as "Mi Primer Beso" ("My First Kiss"). It was also the first onscreen kiss for Macaulay Culkin.
- First Period Panic: Vada apparently has never heard of menstruation. She visits the bathroom, then calls for her father in a panic. Her father is not available, so she tells the only other adult present that she is hemorrhaging. She's also one of the girls who have no mother or female figure to consult. Fortunately for her, the available adult is Shelley, who very kindly calms her down and explains matters to her.
- Fourth-Date Marriage:
- Downplayed, but the whole film—including Harry and Shelly's first meeting, first going on a date, and eventually getting engaged—takes place over the course of one summer.
- Harry tells Vada that he doesn't know much about her mother because they didn't have much time together. He proposed on the second date and they got married two weeks later.
- Freak Out: Vada goes through a couple of these; when she's accidentally locked in the basement, when she gets her first period, and at Thomas J.'s funeral.
- Freudian Excuse: Missing Mom + guilt for the Death by Childbirth + growing up in a funeral home and being around dead people all the time = the eccentric Vada Sultenfuss.
- The "Fun" in "Funeral": Accidental example. Vada is supposed to be watching her senile grandmother while a funeral is going on in the house, but she isn't. So the grandmother walks into the funeral and starts singing loudly.
- Girliness Upgrade: At the end of the movie, Vada lets her hair down and wears a nice dress.
- Good Parents: Harry and Shelly, who both love Vada deeply with the latter wanting to make sure Vada's mother is still part of her life despite her death.
- Granola Girl: The creative writing class has granola girls AND guys. Then again, it is set in 1972.
- Grandparental Obliviousness: Vada's grandmother suffers badly from dementia, so much so that it's Vada's job to babysit Grandma whenever a funeral is happening downstairs (Vada's father is the funeral director). It's a rare example of the obliviousness not being Played for Laughs, and in fact is a point of contention for Vada and her dad at one point when Grandma gets out of Vada's sight and starts singing "One More for the Road" into a rose in front of a roomful of mourners.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Vada feels this way in regard to her father developing a relationship with Shelly. She gets over it with time.
- Heroic BSoD: Poor Vada takes Thomas J's death very badly.
- Hot for Teacher: Vada has a huge crush on her schoolteacher - to the point where, in order to pay to enroll in a summer writing course that he teaches, she steals the money from Shelly.
- Hypochondria: Vada. The junior novel adaptation opens with her listing off all the things she thinks are wrong with her - namely, that she was born jaundiced, caught hemorrhoids in a public restroom, and has a small chicken bone stuck in her throat from a Fourth of July barbecue years before.
- Intergenerational Friendship: Vada has many of these which is rather fitting for an eccentric and possibly gifted child like her having a hard time finding friends within her peer group. She gets along well with her father's coworker Arthur, Shelly (before finding out about Harry being attracted to her), her teacher (who she has a crush on), everyone in the writing class, and even Dr. Welty and his secretary.
- Kill the Cutie: Thomas J. dies after being attacked by bees, and the rest of the movie deals with the fallout of his death and Vada learning to cope with her grief over both him and her late mother.
- Kissing In A Tree: A group of passing girls makes fun of Vada and Thomas J using this song, while the two of them are hanging out at Shelley's.
- Letting Her Hair Down: Vada is mostly seen with a ponytail for the first half of the film. She lets it down after some drama has passed.
- Likes Older Men: Vada being in love with her teacher, with her even flat-out telling him, "I love you the same way my dad loves [his new girlfriend]." Upon finding out the teacher is engaged, Vada takes the news very hard. (Vada is not quite twelve.)
- Lovable Alpha Bitch: Judy, who doesn't seem to tease Vada along with the rest of the Girl Posse. She pays her respects after Thomas J's death and she and Vada appear to be friends by the end of the movie and the sequel shows that they are still friends.
- Madness Mantra: Vada puts her hands over her ears and sings "Do Wah Diddy Diddy" when she's emotionally breaking.
- Maternal Death? Blame the Child!: Vada does this to herself. When she finally voices these feelings, her father assures her that it wasn't her fault.
- Missing Mom: Vada's mother died a few days after Vada was born.
- Multigenerational Household: Vada lives with her father and grandmother. Her grandmother dies offscreen before the events of the sequel.
- Mysterious Parent: Vada knows virtually nothing about her mother except small anecdotes from her father.
- Never Trust a Trailer: The trailer is narrated by Macaulay Culkin, making it seem like Thomas J. is the protagonist, and the film is primarily about his burgeoning preteen romance with Vada. In reality, Vada herself is decidedly the main character, and Thomas J. is in a supporting role. Trailers also portrayed the film as a lighthearted comedy, when in reality it is a more dramatic film that deals with Vada's father entering a new relationship and Thomas J.'s accidental death.
- No Periods, Period: Averted. Vada experiences her first period, and panics when it happens.
- Outliving One's Offspring: Mr. and Mrs. Sennett lose their only child in a very unexpected and tragic accident.
- Parental Obliviousness: Harry doesn't take Vada's eccentric behavior or apparent hypochondria seriously, even initially brushing off Shelly when she points out how Vada is scared and confused by the concept of death due to her unusual exposure to it.
- Parents as People: The movie occasionally shifts its focus from Vada to Harry, following his developing romance with Shelly and his struggles in being a good father to Vada.
- Parent with New Paramour: Vada is not happy about her father dating Shelly. She gets over it by the end and develops a good relationship with Shelly as a new mother figure.
- Practice Kiss: Vada and Thomas practiced kissing on the back of their hands first before going for the actual kiss.
- Precocious Crush: Vada has a crush on her teacher, Mr. Bixler. She confesses to him while breaking down after Thomas J.'s funeral, and he tries to gently let her down and informs her he is getting married. It doesn't make her feel better.
- Raised by Dudes: Vada was raised by her widower father, and since there were some topics Dad was either himself less than fully informed about or too squeamish to discuss with his daughter, her first period comes as a frightening shock to her. Fortunately for her, a female employee of her father (who later becomes her stepmother) is available and quickly steps in to explain to Vada what's going on and reassure her that she's OK.
- The Runaway: Vada runs away after she finds out Harry and Shelly are getting married, but it lasts less than a day and no one notices. She does it again when she can't cope with Thomas J.'s death and her guardians definitely notice.
- Scary Stinging Swarm: Vada and Thomas J run from a swarm of bees and manage to escape unscathed, save for Vada losing her mood ring. When Thomas J goes back alone to retrieve the ring, he isn't quite so lucky...
- Self-Soothing Song: Whenever Vada is stressed or dealing with trauma (like when she's locked in the basement and when Thomas J has been killed), she covers her ears and quickly sings "Doo Wah Diddy Diddy" to herself.
- She Is Not My Girlfriend: Inverted; Vada is annoyed when kids tease her about Thomas J. being her boyfriend.
- Somewhere, an Entomologist Is Crying: The movie features honeybees living inside what appears to be a hornet's nest.
- Stock Beehive: The "beehive" that Thomas and Vada knock down, and Thomas later gets stung to death by, is clearly a nest of bald-faced hornets or aerial yellow jackets, though the bugs were portrayed by real live honeybees.
- Sublime Rhyme: Defied by Vada's teacher. He tells her that a poem is more than words rhyming; it's about expressing one's self.
- The Talk: Vada gets one from Shelly after her period. Her reaction: "My mom and dad did THAT?...I think it should be outlawed!"
- Teacher/Student Romance: Vada has a Precocious Crush on her teacher, who is engaged and whose fiancee is moving in with him the day Vada tells him how she feels — which happens to be the same day of her best friend's funeral, held in the parlor of HER house (her father is the town undertaker and she lives in the funeral home). She doesn't take the rejection well.
- That Nostalgia Show: It's set in the 1970s and has a very nostalgic feel to it - Shelly drives a Volkswagen van, Vada owns a mood ring, there are 70s pop songs on the soundtrack...you get the picture. The 1990s were a time when 70s nostalgia was quite prevalent.
- Tomboy with a Girly Streak: Vada Sultenfuss is a tomboy, who generally wears jeans, sneakers, and a baseball cap, and who is best friend with a boy. However, she also wears a mood ring and has a traditionally feminine-looking bedroom. Plus, she doesn't mind it at all when Shelly applies makeup to her face for fun, even admiring her new look.
- Trauma Conga Line: Vada's life was already a little rough, but then her best friend, Thomas J, dies in a bee attack. She was the one who angered the bees in the first place, and he only went back to try and find her mood ring that she lost, her father is the coroner, the funeral is held at her house, and to top it all off, on the day of said funeral, she discovers the teacher that she had a crush on is getting married. It's quite understandable when she ends up having complete breakdown, although some would argue that it's a bit surprising that it wasn't worse.
- Tsundere: Vada is hot and aggressive toward Thomas a lot of the time, but she does care for him a lot.
- 20 Minutes into the Past: The film is set in 1972, which wasn't even twenty years ago at the time of production.
- Uptight Loves Wild: Thomas falls for Vada despite her being everything opposite to his usual sedate existence.
- Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Shelly's ex-husband's response when introduced to Vada."Vada Sultenfuss? Tough break."
