Director: Howard Zieff
Writer: Laurice Elehwany
Stars: Anna Chlumsky, Macaulay Culkin, Dan Akyroyd, and Jamie Lee Curtis
My Girl (1991) is a movie about a girl named Vada (Anna Chlumsky) and her best friend (Macaulay Culkin) who just happens to be a boy. She's an only child raised by her father after her mother passed away. Her crush on her middle school teacher, Mr. Bixler (Griffin Dunne) leaves her upset when she finds out that he has a fiancé. Not only that, but ehr father has a new girlfriend. The movie is a coming-of-age film where Vada has to deal with many events and problems in her life without much help from her father, who is constantly busy with his work or a mother, since she had passed away.
Vada turns to her best friend, Thomas J, and they spend the summer together.
Watch this video from 2:20 to 3:32.
Vada and Thomas J knock over a beehive and Vada loses her ring. Since Thomas J is deathly allergic to bees, he and Vada literally "run for their lives" and jump into the lake.
Vada and Thomas J jumping into the lake to avoid the bees
This scene shows how Thomas J and Vada interact as best friends and their first kiss, experimenting the "adult, real world side" of growing up.
Thomas J and Vada experiencing their first kiss
In this coming-of-age film, Vada experiences adult experiences such as her first kiss and her first period. Every person must go through this transition from childhood to adulthood, putting extra stress on people, especially Vada. Each thing that happens to Vada is a result of another one, including her experience with puberty. Her kissing Thomas J affects his decision to talk to her about marriage. Her reaction helps him decide to go back to the woods to get her ring for her.
In this scene, Thomas J goes back into the woods in order to look for Vada's mood ring. Unfortunately, as he looks through the remnants of the beehive, he disturbs the bees and they attack him. Thomas J dies because of this incident. If Vada and Thomas J had not knocked down the beehive, they wouldn't have jumped into the lake nor would they have experienced their first kiss together. However, since they did knock down the beehive, Thomas J and Vada ended up soaked in the lake and they talked about the future and if maybe in the future, they could be married.
Vada after Thomas J asks her to marry him in the future
However, unfortunately, Thomas J getting the ring for Vada meant that he would have to die. This entire situation shows the Buddhist concept of interbeing in that each and every action these kids had partaken in led to another event or other occurrence. These events in themselves are connected as well as the relationships of different people and human relationships to nature.Vada becomes more upset about her best friend's death than the average 11-year-old due to her obsession (and ultimate fear) of death, which is consequential to her father's career as an undertaker. Not to mention she's still getting over her mother's death, finding out that her teacher/crush is getting married, getting used to her father's new girlfriend Shelly (Jamie Lee Curtis), and losing her one and only best friend. It makes perfect sense that these sequential events would ultimately lead to Vada's breakdown in this scene.
Vada's breakdown over Thomas J's death
The movie My Girl is just a reminder that every action we do affects someone else. We never truly know everything someone is going through and clearly, Vada's pile-up of unfortunate events threw her over the edge. We are interconnected through what we do and how what we do affects other people.Sources:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102492/
Image Credit:
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http://chucksconnection.com/mygirl/mygirl04.jpg
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