Review of My Girl (1991) by Luigi A — 28 Aug 2013

This gentle comedy/drama is one you either love or hate. Almost every scene is toppled with syrupy sentiment, and the writers seem to be ticking off on a list given by the producers, containing every age-old moral lesson children need to learn.

And then, after all this harmless moralizing, out of nowhere comes the sudden death of Macaulay Culkin - which, I'm not gonna lie, pretty much traumatized me as a child. The underlying message is that life is unpredictable, and not always nice, but we can always look forward with the help of our friends and family.

It does often become uncomfortably sentimental, and is certainly for those of a less cynical nature ... but I guess I'm not all that cynical, because I think this is a good film. On recently re-watching it, there are certain areas that needed more work, and Culkin is not always that great an actor.

But overall, this was a sweet and touching experience. It's a shame Anna Chlumsky never really went on to anything, because her acting (for a child) was impressive.