A.C.O.D.

A nice to surprise to find this. Well-crafted, a really original story (worth points just for that), with one of the best casts you could ask for.

I'll watch anything with Catherine O'Hara. I could say the same thing about Amy Poehler, or Adam Scott. Or Jane Lynch. And here they are, all in the same picture, along with the always, always reliable Richard Jenkins.

I'm also surprised to find how polarizing this movie is. People seem to ether hate it or love it. I can't quite understand the haters, except that maybe they wanted something more obvious. I wouldn't call this movie subtle, but it's perhaps a little too worldly and knowing for some. Not for me. I loved it.

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.

So first of all, it stands for Adult Child of Divorce and its the main reason no-one heard of this one. It sounds like a disorder, and people go see comedies that seem like a good time, not a lot of work.

Adam Scott's little bro wants to get married, and its his job to try and get his warring divorced parents to be in the same room together.

Jane Lynch, Mary Elisabeth Winstead, Amy Poehler, Katherine O'Hara and Richard Jenkins are all great. Funny likable cast, terrific situation comedy, its only about 20 minutes too long. Truly the only reason this got buried was that terrible unwieldy title.

6/10 outwore its welcome by the end, but still, underrated.

As I started watching this movie, it became very obvious that this was a very personal, cathartic movie. I have no problem with that, it's done all the time--but what's important, interesting, funny, and meaningful to the writer/director, doesn't always translate into something meaningful to the viewer unless there is far more skill in the storytelling. And that is what I think this movie lacked.

The plot simply covers the story of a a kid named Carter (and his younger brother Trey) who's father was a philanderer as a husband, as well as fairly cold and distant as a father. The father and mother haven't spoken for 20 years and the father has gone through several other step moms over those years.

I'm sure the "seminal" moment of Carter's 9th birthday was a huge deal to writer, but it was thrust at us so quickly at the beginning of the movie that we didn't have time for any background/setup to even know or care what was going on. To me, that scene which was apparently so pivotal ended up a throwaway scene because the writer seemed so eager to tell it that he told it too soon without any context whatsoever.

So we fast forward to Carter's now-successful (at least career-wise) life. There are a lot of funny moments here, but nothing we couldn't see in a half-hour sitcom. But the road the movie takes us down is a bit meandering and it seems very clear that we're going to have some sort of too-neatly wrapped up happy ending designed to close every loose end with a perfect situation and end all the pain of all the children who've gone through this situation.

To me, it just smacked too much of someone dumping his messed-up life on us and his wish of what could have been. It didn't make for an entertaining movie. Maybe a half-hour episode of Trophy Wife or something would have been a better venue for this story. Jimo