1972. Vada Sultenfuss (played by Anna Chlumsky) is an intelligent, bubbly, hypochondriacal 11-year old girl. Her father, Harry (Dan Aykroyd), is a mortician and a widower. Her best friend is Thomas J Sennett (Macaulay Culkin). Then her father hires a new receptionist, Shelly (Jamie Lee Curtis) and life will never be the same again.
Wonderful movie, and so much better than I expected. From the title and synopsis I thought it was going to be some sort of romantic drama made for teens/pre-teens. However, it is much much more than that. A great examination of love and loss, life, death and renewal and growing up. Very emotional, especially in the final few scenes.
Anna Chlumsky is great as Vada. Most child characters end up being irritating, as they tend to be written for children and acted in bratty fashion. Vada's character is wonderful and Anna Chlumsky, in her second movie and first major role, gives a superb performance. Sadly, unlike her co-star Macaulay Culkin, her career never really took off after this and it took until the series Veep in 2012 before she got the sort of role she deserved.
On that note, Macaulay Culkin's role is more subdued, has less screen time and less dialogue-intense than Chlumsky's. He does a solid job though.
Dan Aykroyd and Jamie Lee Curtis put in good performances too.
