Jamie Lee Curtis does not receive the love she deserves for this classic devastating cult

Jamie Lee Curtis did a little of everything in his acting career, horror and comedy being among his greatest successes. She took Michael Myers with a knife, an ax and a criminal fire in the Halloween series. She is based with a guitar solo Weird Friday. But what is a more underestimated performance she has achieved? Look no further than the film to go to adulthood, My daughterA tearful with a sincere message, where Curtis plays someone who helps make a little easier to manage feelings uncomfortable on death. Without the extreme premises of the more famous projects of Curtis, My daughter allows him to create a convincing performance of the ordinary.

A summer changes everything in “my daughter”

It was in the summer of 1972 in a city of Pennsylvania, where the young Vada Sultenfuss (Anna Chlumsky) Grows in a rather unusual place for a child. She lives with her widowed father, Harry (And Aykroyd), in the funeral lounge which he directs, which has made him become anxious for deathAlways worried about being able to contract new diseases. Going to the doctor to have his symptoms checked is a daily event, like spending time with his nearest friend and the only friend, Thomas J. (Macaulay Culkin). This summer is also when Vada is starting to adolescence, and great changes come into his life. We stop at a motorhome looking for a job, because Shelly DEVOTO (CURTIS) is a makeup artist who needs work. In addition to a slight misunderstanding on which will be its customers, it is more than ready to work in the funeral home.

In the 1990s, Curtis was clumsy but adventurous in The real liesShe was manipulative and cruel Mother’s boysThen she found the Boogeyman in Halloween: H20. In her recent career resurgence, she is part of the multiverse in All everywhere at the same timeShe is unstable and vulnerable in The bearAnd she made a franchise return with the Halloween Trilogy and Friday more bizarre. Curtis knows how to make greater performances in them, but that’s not what My daughter needs. It brings a warm presence as Shelly, which is a place in the Sultenfuss family.

Shelly is a quietly powerful performance by Jamie Lee Curtis

Two lonely people comfort each other when a romance grows between the emotional harry, which embraces the extroverted personality of Shelly, without it never pushes things faster than they should be. Their first scene together is even more fun because of How Curtis performance is minimal. Shelly has no idea that she is in a funeral lounge, not a beauty salon. “I have a wonderful arrangement, I put people at ease,” she said with a big hiring smile. “Uh, Miss Devoto, these people are already comfortable,” replied Harry. A large part of the comedy that follows with Shelly is similar, where she finds herself in strange circumstances.

During a family dinner, Shelly silently takes everything with wide eyes: Harry talks with his brother, confusing by his aging mother singing loudly and vada lying on the ground due to his claims of prostate cancer. But she does not judge what she sees, and that does not prevent her from falling for Harry. At the end of their first meeting, Shelly brings Harry to her motorhome for a romantic scene that strengthens a great chemistry between Curtis and Aykroyd, where she just takes care of a boost here and there, until a dance turns into a kiss. But the best stage partner for Curtis is the Vada of Chlumsky, who needs a support she does not get her father, so she acts or internalizes her fears.

She is authoritarian to Thomas J. and feels secretly responsible for the death of her mother during childbirth. These complicated feelings continue in his relationship with Shelly. No matter how much Chlumsky is on the screen, Curtis responds with patience and kindness. Shelly helps Vada understand what it means to get her rules and allows the girl to try her favorite blue eyeshadow. The link changes once Vada discovers that Harry proposed in Shelly. The closest thing to the physical comedy of Jamie Lee Curtis is during a carnival trip, when Vada releases his confusion and her frustration by driving her outdoor car to Shelly. Each time, Curtis makes you feel the impact of how she throws her body in the air. But making you laugh is a little piece of his character, because the real power of the role of Curtis is how It helps a separate parent and child to face their sorrow When life stands its ugly head.

‘My daughter’ is sweet and edifying

Death is the highest issues in Curtis horror films for sensations, but above all without them directly confronting the pain and sadness of loss. In My daughterThere is an understanding of not hiding from the wound of the world. Shelly is the only one to notice that living in a funeral lounge does not help to understand the sudden tragedy of the death of Thomas J. It is not that Harry is a bad father; He desensitized himself after losing his wife. He begins the film by saying to Vada: “I embalm my high school teacher. No singing. ” In the end, he became a better father with the advice of Shelly. “Do not ignore the living, especially your daughter,” she saidAnd he listens.

My daughter is memorable for the painful loss which seems as personal for viewers as for Vada. The end can hurt, but it does not leave hope, with a large part of Shelly’s vision on life. It even becomes a positive and nuanced representation of a mother-in-law in films. Among the roles that Jamie Lee Curtis assured, even those who awarded him an Emmy or an Oscar, My daughter is the one to which she deserves more recognition.

My daughter

Release date

November 27, 1991

Execution time

102 minutes

Director

Howard Zieff

Writers

Laurice Elehwany