My Girl (film) - Plot

Plot

The film is set in Madison, Pennsylvania, in the summer of 1972. Vada Sultenfuss (Anna Chlumsky) is an 11-year-old tomboy and a hypochondriac. Vada's father, Harry Sultenfuss (Dan Aykroyd), 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 serves as a funeral parlor, has led Vada to develop an obsession with death. She thinks that she killed her mother, who died giving birth to her. Vada regularly tends to her invalid grandmother Gramoo (Ann Nelson), who suffers from Alzheimer's disease. Harry's brother Phil (Richard Masur), who lives nearby, also stops by frequently to help out the family.

Vada is teased by other girls and her best friend is Thomas J. Sennett (Macaulay Culkin), an unpopular boy who is allergic to "everything." One day, Vada gets squirted with a water gun by Thomas J., which makes Vada chase Thomas J. into the woods. Once there, they throw rocks at a beehive and end up getting chased by bees. During the encounter, Vada loses her mood ring.

Vada's summer begins well. She befriends Shelly DeVoto (Jamie Lee Curtis), the new make-up artist at her father's funeral parlor, who provides her with some much needed guidance. She is also infatuated with her teacher, Mr. Bixler (Griffin Dunne), and steals some money from Shelly's trailer to attend a summer writing class that he is teaching. However, soon things start to fall apart.

Her father and Shelly start dating and get engaged. Vada experiences her first menstrual cycle; Shelly explains it after Vada runs around the house yelling that she is hemorrhaging. A couple of days later, Vada and Thomas J. sit at the dock by the river and end up kissing. Then, Thomas J. goes into the forest to look for Vada's mood ring and finds it, but gets stung by the bees and dies of an allergic reaction. Soon after, Vada discovers that Mr. Bixler is about to get married to someone else. Shelly and Harry get into an argument at Thomas J.'s funeral, and Shelly angrily tells Harry that life isn't just about death, as well as not to ignore the living, especially his daughter.

Vada's grief, however, manages to mend the rift between her and her father. She learns that her mother's death after her birth wasn't her fault (since her father tells her that things like mothers dying in childbirth aren't anybody's fault; they just happen without explanation). Eventually Vada makes a new friend, and not only comes to terms with her pain and grief, but also overcomes some of her previous issues as well.