My Girl

My Girl is the bittersweet story of an undertaker's precocious 11-year-old daughter (Anna Chlumsky) and her allergic sidekick (Macaulay Culkin) who is felled by a fatal bee sting caused a major buzz among parents when it was released in theaters last year. Protective grown-ups worried that their kids would be frightened by seeing Mac, the indestructible hero of Home Alone, lying stone cold in a coffin.

But such (well-meaning) concern misses the larger point: This film, set for no apparent reason in 1972, is not really a movie for children. Youngsters will be bored by the tender, mature romance between the girl's square, undertaker dad (Dan Aykroyd) and the groovy cosmetologist he hires to apply makeup to the corpses (Jamie Lee Curtis). And they'll be confused by the dated Age of Aquarius references to vibes, auras, and mood rings. True, Mac is back — and gets his first screen kiss — but even die-hard fans will be disappointed by his small role here, filmed before Home Alone became a hit and turned him into the $5 million mini-man. My Girl is one video your kids may beg you to rent, but afterward you'll both wonder why they did. C

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