A.C.O.D. (2013)

Thanks for the memories!

Boring, long, and too preachy.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

This movie is held together by a typically intelligent, sympathetic performance from Adam Scott, with fine support from Mary Elizabeth Winstead. I believed in and cared about them as the central couple, with Scott struggling to deal with the chaos created by others and Winstead the voice of reason in his life. Other performances capture the selfishness of a dysfunctional family nicely, and I quickly found myself rooting for Scott and feeling the pain when his life is derailed. This movie doesn't patronise the audience with clichéd resolutions, it's funny enough to keep us amused and thanks to Scott and Winstead it never slips into pointless farce.

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.

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.

My boyfriend and I had been looking forward to seeing this movie since it came out on DVD. After reading the synopsis and watching the trailer, we diligently watched our local Redboxes until it became available so we could enjoy a movie night of laughter. But, sadly, we were let down. There didn't seem to be one single spot where we actually laughed out loud, and actually was more of a drama than a comedy. I felt bad for the character more than I laughed. It was like a series of unfortunate events, none of which get resolved. The movie ended and I felt confused. All this bad stuff happens to the guy (I just watched the movie not more than 10 minutes ago and I've already forgotten the character's names- that's how bad it was) and then all of a sudden its a year later and its the day of a wedding but they don't tell your whose. I assumed it was the dad remarrying the mom, but honestly it could have been the younger brothers wedding to the Japanese chick or it could have been the guys wedding go the yoga girl. They just leave you wondering, cuz the whole reason that this guys life gets crazy again is for his little brothers wedding that you end up NEVER SEEING. At best it could be compared to a coming of age movie, except that he's already a man and there is no huge revelation scene where he realizes what he really needs. At worst, it was a pointless dollar and change and two or so hours wasted. I have to blame the writers on this. With all the decent names involved on screen - people I've have found quite humorous in the others character they've portrayed, the only explanation for the lols (lack of laughs) is that the writers didn't write a funny story. I gave the movie 4 stars. One for the argument between the parents in the opening scene. While I feel the writers were stupid for setting it at the kids birthday, the words they were yelling at each other would have been perfect for a different setting. Another star was for the younger brother telling the Japanese girl to dial 611 instead of 911 in the fire scene. The third star was also for the younger brother, and the reason he gave for deciding to marry the Japanese girl. And lastly, the forth star is for whoever convinced the cast to act in this movie, cuz I doubt they all read it and said OMG I have to do this its so funny; it must have taken either a lot of arm twisting or a big budget for their salaries.