My Girl 2

Plot

In the spring of 1974, nearly two years following the events of the first film, Vada Sultenfuss (Chlumsky) sets out on a quest to learn more about her deceased biological mother. She has matured from the spunky, eleven-year-old hypochondriac to a lively, yet more serious teenager seeking independence. Her father Harry (Aykroyd) and his new wife Shelly DeVoto (Curtis), whom he dated in the first film, are expecting a baby. They still live in the Sultenfuss' funeral home in Madison, Pennsylvania, while Harry's brother Phil (Masur) has moved to Los Angeles, where he works as a mechanic. Gramoo, Vada's grandmother, is no longer alive. Vada still has her mood ring from two years earlier and wears it in memory of her late best friend Thomas J., who died retrieving it for her after she had lost it.

To accommodate the new baby, Vada moves out of her bedroom and into Gramoo's old room, which has been renovated, and it brings further problems with adjustment. Vada even thinks about getting her own apartment while spending a night out with her father.

Vada is given a school assignment to write an essay on someone she admires but has never met. She decides to write about her mother but has few sources to go on, which are all confined to a small box. Among its contents are programs of plays her mother was in (she was an aspiring actress), a passport, and a mystery paper bag with a date scribbled on it. Vada expresses her desire to travel someday, so Shelly concocts a plan for her to travel to Los Angeles during her spring break, where she can stay with her uncle Phil and do research on her mother, who lived in L.A. growing up. Harry does not go along with the idea, believing Vada is too young to be traveling by herself, and fearing what might happen to her in California. Eventually, he lets her take the five-day trip.

Upon arriving in L.A., Vada finds herself confronting a boy her age named Nick (O'Brien), who comes to pick her up at the airport instead of Phil. Nick is the son of Phil's girlfriend Rose (Ebersole), the owner of the car repair shop Phil works at. As a favor to Phil, though annoyed at first about sacrificing his own spring break, Nick helps Vada with the difficult search of learning more about her mother. It becomes nearly impossible after Vada learns that her mother's old high school burned down, but she and Nick still manage to track down a yearbook from when her mother went there.

Vada and Nick meet several people who knew her mother. Some of the things she finds out do not sit well with her, such as her mother being suspended from school for smoking. Two of these acquaintances have a look at the paper bag from Vada's small box of memories about her mother, but neither can decipher it. When another blurts out the name Jeffrey Pommeroy, thinking that he is Vada's father, Vada is crushed and wonders why her father never mentioned this person. Eventually, though with some hesitation, she goes to see Jeffrey (John David Souther), her mother's first husband. He provides Vada with valuable information to help with her essay, including home movies and the answer behind the date written on the paper bag. Seeing the home movies touches Vada, as she watches her mother (Angeline Ball) act, as well as sing a song called "Smile".

Meanwhile, Phil has trouble proving his love to Rose after a man frequently shows up at the repair shop and continuously flatters her. When Phil finally gets the courage to show Rose what she means to him, he proposes.

As Vada is ready to head home, she and Nick share a goodbye kiss at the airport before she boards the plane. Nick tells Vada about a surprise in her backpack, where she finds earrings for her newly pierced ears. When Vada returns home, she realizes Shelly just had a baby boy and heads to the hospital to see her new brother. To calm his crying, Vada sings "Smile" while holding him.

Vada's essay on her mother gets an A+, and she hopes to share what she learned during her trip with her brother someday.

Cast

Reception

The film received a mixed reception.

Box office

The film debuted at #4 at the US box office.

Awards

For her performance, Chlumsky won a Young Artist Award for "Best Performance by a Young Actress Starring in a Motion Picture"; Thomson and O'Brien were also nominated for Young Artist Awards for their roles.

Cancelled sequel

For several years Still My Girl was proposed as the third motion picture in the My Girl movie franchise and it was in development at Columbia Pictures. In his 2003 United Kingdom talk show interview with host Michael Parkinson, Dan Aykroyd stated that Columbia had an interest in getting this off the ground and strong interest in Anna Chlumsky returning to her role as Vada. In 2009, both Chlumsky and Aykroyd were still attached to the project but as the time passed it was becoming less and less likely that it would ever go into production. Finally, in April 2012, Chlumsky "put to rest" any rumors that such a film was in development.