A.C.O.D.

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.

Adam Scott plays Carter, a restaurant owner who has spent most of his life keeping the peace between his hateful and bitter divorced parents, played by Richard Jenkins and Catherine O'Hara, by keeping them away from one another. When Carter's younger brother, played by Clark Duke, gets engaged, Carter is asked to be the best man and help plan the wedding. This means trying to get their mother and father in the same room without starting a war. The stress of this task leads Carter to re-visit his childhood therapist, played by Jane Lynch, where he finds out she's not a therapist but an author who was doing research for her now best-selling book, Adult Children Of Divorce.

Adam Scott has been around since the mid 90's but it wasn't until 2004 when his career really took off being cast in Martin Scorsese's film, The Aviator. It was in 2008, playing the evil older brother of Will Ferrell in Adam McKay's masterpiece (arguably the funniest film of all-time), Step Brothers, that Adam Scott's full potential as a comedic actor was finally noticed. A.C.O.D. re-unites him with Richard Jenkins, who played his step-father in Step Brothers, and Amy Poehler, who plays his wife on the sitcom, Parks and Recreation, yet here plays his mean-spirited step-mother. This will leave audiences to expect big laughs from A.C.O.D. as it's hard not to relate it to both Step Brothers and Parks and Rec, due to similar casting. Unfortunately, this will lead to disappointment.

The film is co-written by award-winning writer/producer Ben Karlin, who was a head writer for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and writes for Modern Family. Between Karlin's talent and a large ensemble cast filled with big names, director Stu Zicherman had much to manage, especially being his directorial debut.

The cast is excellent, especially Richard Jenkins and Catherine O'Hara. The real war going on here isn't between their characters in the film but between the drama and comedy that make up the story. The film seems to be trying to deliver a message that is lost, like a lot of potential laughs due to an imbalance. It's hard to tell whether this imbalance came from the script or from the inexperienced director.

A.C.O.D. begins as an exciting laugh-out-loud comedy. As the film moves past the first 20 minutes, it starts taking itself too seriously and becomes more dramatic than humorous, which will let down the majority of it's audience.

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.

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.

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.