A.C.O.D.

Carter (Adam Scott) is the long suffering son of divorced parents Hugh (Richard Jenkins) and Melissa (Catherine O'Hara) since he was 9. His slacker brother Trey (Clark Duke) is marrying Keiko (Valerie Tian). Sondra (Amy Poehler) is Hugh's latest wife and the landlord to Carter's restaurant. Gary (Ken Howard) is Melissa's latest husband. Neither Melissa nor Hugh are willing to go to the same wedding for Trey. Lauren (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) is Carter's girlfriend of four years. He finds out that his childhood counseling with Dr. Lorraine Judith (Jane Lynch) was actually a case study for her successful book "Children of Divorce". It leads him to reconsider his life and Dr. Judith wants to write a sequel "Adult Children of Divorce". Then he finds his father cheating with his mother. Michelle (Jessica Alba) and Mark (Adam Pally) are two of Dr. Judith's subjects.

I wonder where the good jokes are. The great cast gets into some off-kilter situations. Some of it is cute and chuckle-worthy. I think it's due mostly to the expert cast. O'Hara and Jenkins get in some good fun. The movie is slightly interesting but not so insightful to be actually compelling. We know that Adam Scott is good in an ensemble but the jury is still out for him to be the outright lead. There is too much comedic talent for it to be OK for so few laughs.

After watching A.C.O.D. on Netflix I immediately logged onto IMDb to see what sort of ratings the movie had received from critics and other users. I was in fact very surprised that the reviews were not stronger for this movie.

I believe the main problem with this movie is that it must be listed as a comedy. A.C.O.D. is not the traditional comedy with one liners, slapstick, and crazy over the top situations, but is more of a drama dealing with the struggles of an adult living with the trauma of growing up the child of divorced parents. The protagonist Carter's character arc is quite engaging and mostly well written. Even things that he did that I felt were out of character seemed passable when his overall emotional state was considered. The movie was quite deep and could be potentially very meaningful to real life adult children of divorce.

Other positives of this film are in its acting and direction. Most of the actors in this movie were quite good. Adam Scott was typical Adam Scott, nothing new there. The direction was also quite good and I enjoyed the soundtrack.

If you plan to go into this movie expecting laughs though, you won't probably enjoy it as much as I did.

Grade: C+

A.C.O.D. is a completely mixed bag. The film centers around Carter (Adam Scott), who has spent 15 years dealing with the feud between his divorced parents (Richard Jenkins and Catherine O'Hara). When Carter's younger brother Trey (Clark Duke) Decides to get married, Carter must confront the feud and convince his parents to go to the wedding together.

Like I said earlier, this film is a mixed bag. Adam Scott is the best one in the film. He is able to convey sympathy for his parents while also trying to keep everything in an orderly fashion. His parents on the other hand? Well… They are crap. They were always bickering at each other and causing a big scene, which I understand is the point of their characters, but I never felt any authenticity in their performance. Catherine O'Hara really got on my nerves.

The ending felt very rushed. It's almost like the film was originally shot to be two hours long but during editing, the director decided to cut out a 30-minute chunk of the final act. At only one hour and 27 minutes, A.C.O.D. leaves a lot more to be desired. If you are a massive fan of Adam Scott and you have to see all his work then check it out, otherwise this is one you can probably skip.

I liked the movie, I think I would have liked it better if I hadn't understood it so well. And yes people, some of our parents did behave this way. The fighting in public, ruining weddings, burnt pictures...the list goes on. I think I didn't care for it as much as I could have because Carter, gets crapped on. He is the victim. The parents are selfish a-holes. But if you can't laugh at your misfortune, you just have misfortune. Accurate picture of a dysfunctional divorced family, obviously not all families are like this. Loved all the actors, Jane lynch is one of my favs. Makes you want to be a better parent...and spouse.

"Them together is bad for everyone, especially me." Carter (Scott) has settled into his life as an Adult Child Of Divorce. He has a girlfriend he likes and a restaurant he owns. When his brother Trey (Duke) informs him of his engagement things begin to fall apart for Carter. First he has to try and get his parents to talk to each other so the wedding won't be ruined. Then he must keep them from getting back together for his sake. Going in with that cast I was expecting a hilarious comedy that I would be laughing at the whole time. While this was a good movie and I did like it it wasn't nearly as funny as I was expecting. There are some funny parts in this but it wasn't the laugh riot I was expecting. This is more about the selfishness of one person and how he messes with everyone's life to make him more comfortable. There is some very funny moments in this but hard to make that plot hilarious. Again though this is a good movie and worth seeing but do not expect the laugh-out-loud comedy I did. Overall, good and worth seeing but not super funny. I give it a B.