Though not his first movie, 1990’s massive hit Home Alone quickly made Macaulay Culkin a household name. For his next job after that flick’s release, Culkin worked in 1991’s coming of age tale My Girl.

Set in Pennsylvania circa 1972, Harry Sultenfuss (Dan Aykroyd) runs the local funeral parlor. When he hires a new makeup artist, he meets Shelly DeVoto (Jamie Lee Curtis), and the two soon develop a romantic relationship in addition to their professional connection.

Because her mother died in childbirth – and she becomes exposed to corpses on a daily basis – Harry’s 11-year-old daughter Vada (Anna Chlumsky) grows up obsessed with death and hypochondriacal. She also reacts negatively to her father’s situation with Shelly.

You’ll note no mention of Culkin in that synopsis. He portrays Thomas J. Sennett, a nerdy kid with severe allergies and Vada’s BFF.

Culkin plays such a small role in My Girl that I wondered if he agreed to the project before Home Alone erupted. Nope – apparently he signed onto the movie about two months after Home Alone’s release, at which point it’d already made jillions of dollars and endeared Culkin to a wide audience.

Perhaps Culkin’s parents felt it better to take on a supporting part at this point in his career rather than shoot for something bigger. Maybe the leads Culkin got offered didn’t seem like a good fit.

Actually, My Girl didn’t provide Culkin’s first post-Home Alone release, as Only the Lonely arrived in May 1991, about half a year before this film. However, Culkin took on a smaller part in that one and it shot before Home Alone made him a star.

My Girl probably felt like a smart move since it offered a more dramatic film and a character who existed as a contrast to Home Alone’s Kevin. Too bad My Girl doesn’t work as a film.

For the most part, the movie focuses on Vada and brings us a kind of “coming of age” story. Of course, it delivers twists on that theme, mainly due to what an oddball Vada is.

My Girl spends a fair amount of time with Harry and Shelly as well – and probably too much time. The movie feels awkwardly balanced as it hops from Vada’s narrative to the burgeoning adult romance of Harry and Shelly.

I get the impression the filmmakers would prefer to focus on Vada but probably became compelled to pad the Harry/Shelly material to entice “name” actors to join the project. Sure, Culkin enjoyed nascent star power when cast, but I doubt the studio assumed “that kid from Home Alone” was famous enough to draw big crowds.

Chlumsky was a complete unknown, so the suits likely wanted well-known adults to give the project some credibility. Enter Aykroyd and Curtis in roles that should’ve been much smaller.

A little of Harry and Shelly goes a long way, though I don’t mean that their scenes become problematic or annoying. Instead, I simply feel that most of their moments seem superfluous.

My Girl should be about Vada’s journey. She’s the girl in the title and she and Culkin were the subjects of the flick’s posters.

And Vada does occupy most of the flick’s screentime. However, the movie wanders away to pursue Harry and Shelly too often, and that means Vada can get lost in the mix.

All that said, at least Curtis and Aykroyd offer some charm and good performances. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for Chlumsky.

As she would demonstrate as a regular on Veep, Chlumsky developed into a capable thespian. Unfortunately, as Vada she overacts relentlessly and seems annoying rather than likably quirky.

Culkin does fine as semi-frail Thomas J., though the role doesn’t ask a lot of him. Still, he holds up his end of the bargain.

Since so much of the story revolves around Vada, however, Chlumsky’s clunky performance becomes an issue. She makes it tough to connect to Vada and invest in the role.

Not that a superior turn would do much to redeem this relentlessly gooey confection. My Girl mainly offers cheesy melodrama and lacks an authentic vibe.

Basically the film mixes melodrama and clumsy comedy. Neither side hits the mark, so the movie stumbles along toward its bizarrely neat ‘n’ tidy finale.

When remembered, it seems like most folks recall My Girl for a potentially surprising death scene. No spoilers here, of course, but if this demise comes as a shock to viewers, then they didn’t pay attention.

The movie sets up possible tragedy early and often. The actual death exists just as a cheap excuse to manipulate audience emotions.

To be fair, that goes for the whole movie. While My Girl comes with the potential to deliver an engaging coming of age tale, instead it winds up as a mawkish and contrived dud.

My Girl appears in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. This turned into a consistently pleasing Dolby Vision presentation.

Overall sharpness seemed satisfying. A little softness crept into the occasional wider shot, but most of the movie brought appealing delineation.

Neither jaggies nor moiré effects impacted the image, and I saw no edge haloes. Grain felt natural, and I witnessed no print flaws.

As befit a nostalgic period piece, My Girl came with a fairly amber palette, albeit with some brighter reds and whatnot along the way. The hues didn’t dazzle, but they felt well-depicted, and HDR added some warmth to the tones.

Blacks looked pretty deep and dense, while low-light shots offered generally positive clarity. HDR brought a bit of a boost to contrast and whites. As a low-key drama from 1991, My Girl didn’t offer dazzling visuals, but the 4K reproduced the source well.

Don’t expect much from the film’s subdued DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack. Like I anticipated from this form of character comedy-drama, the soundscape lacked much breadth.

This left a soundfield that largely focused on the forward channels, and even those speakers didn’t develop in an especially compelling manner. While music demonstrated nice stereo spread, effects only occasionally popped up in the side channels.

Unsurprisingly, the surrounds seemed even more passive, as they popped to life a little but not much. For instance, a Fourth of July sequence allowed fireworks to pop in the back speakers, but even then, they didn’t come across as particularly lively.

At least audio quality worked fine, with speech that remained natural and concise. Music showed nice range as well.

As noted, effects lacked much to do, but they came across as natural enough. While nothing here impressed, the track did enough for a “B-“.

A smattering of extras accompany the film, and we find an audio commentary from screenwriter Laurice Elehwany. She offers a running, screen-specific discussion of the screenplay's origins and development, story and characters, autobiographical elements and other inspirations, cast and performances, and a few additional production thoughts.

Elehwany fares best when she digs into the aspects of her life that influenced the script and related domains. Though she loses steam toward the end, she gets into these topics enough to make this a pretty informative and enjoyable chat.

Two segments show up under A Day on Set. We find “First Kiss” (1:24) and “Bingo” (3:31).

Both offer footage from the shoot and give us a “fly on the wall” glimpses of the production. The “Day” clips seem moderately interesting but not more than that.

In addition to the film’s trailer, we finish with a vintage behind the scenes featurette. It goes for six minutes, eight seconds and provides remarks from director Howard Zieff, actors Anna Chlumsky, Macaulay Culkin, Dan Aykroyd, and Jamie Lee Curtis.

The program comes with basics about story and characters as well as cast/performances and sets/locations. It offers rudimentary promotional fodder.

Overdone and mawkish, My Girl offers a clumsy ‘coming of age’ tale. It tells its story awkwardly and seems too cheesy to succeed. The 4K UHD comes with good picture, acceptable audio and a small mix of bonus materials. My Girl offers some curiosity value as the first project Macaulay Culkin made after Home Alone but the end result falters too much of the time.