Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Amy Petter- My Girl (1991)


My Girl

Director: Howard Zieff
Year: 1991

            My Girl directed by Howard Zieff had a very interesting plot.  An 11-year-old girl, Vada, was obsessed with death. Her mother had died, her father ran a funeral home, and towards the end, her best friend Thomas J died. The movie was well composed, following the rule of thirds and had some well-known actors such as Jamie Lee Curtis.
            The film started off to be interesting but towards the middle it lost interest. There was no very specific plot like other movies. It had a good meaning to it, but the movie could have been better. It was funny until the end when Thomas J died.
            The moving shot on the bicycles really set the 1970’s scenery of the movie, along with the music. The scene also began to get us to understand that Thomas J was Vada’s best friend. Vada really only had one friend.
            The film did a really great job at getting us to become attached emotionally to Vada. Her grandmother was surely to die soon, her father ignored her, and other girls teased her. It also helped that the film was shot from Vada’s point of view.
            The camera looked up at Vada from the bottom of the stairs to show how little Vada felt in the world and in her father’s house. The lighting, much like in the other movies I watched, was dim to symbolize fear and unknown.
The scene where Vada's father answered the door and the cop told him that Thomas J died was shot from the top of the stairs to the bottom. It made us feel sorry for her father. He had to go upstairs and tell his daughter the news.
            What I really enjoyed about the film that was unlike other films was if someone said something to Vada that she didn’t agree with, it would give us a thought from inside her head that made us realize what she was thinking. It helped us realize that she was still a young girl trying to grow up in a household with out a family and a house full of death.
            Overall, I think that the movie could have been a lot better with a more intriguing plot, but the director did a good job with the lines, the humor, the sadness and the composition. 

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