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by Tony Dayoub

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Stuart Zicherman's directorial debut, A.C.O.D., is a pleasant enough, undemanding film that has the whiff of the autobiographical. When I turned to my wife after we were done watching it, I asked, "So what'd you think?" "It was alright," she said. "I thought it was okay for an indie," I said. "Oh, it was an indie? Yeah, it was pretty good for an indie." And then we went to bed. It's kind of sad, actually, when a movie with such a powerhouse comedic cast that includes the likes of Adam Scott and Amy Poehler (both from Parks and Recreation), the great Richard Jenkins, and the singular Catherine O'Hara can only muster a wordier version of "Meh!" from a film critic and his wife.

Really, though, what much else is there to say about A.C.O.D.? The title stands for Adult Children of Divorce, and that's about the funniest thing said in this ostensible comedy. Scott performs a couple of his patented "Why me?" reaction shots upon learning that his younger brother is getting married after only a 4-month courtship and realizing this means he has to get his bitterly feuding parents (Jenkins and O’Hara) together for the wedding. Hijinks never quite ensue because the movie gets bogged down by Scott's neurotic navel-gazing. This would be fine if there were some kind of conclusions drawn. But A.C.O.D. never really comes off. Instead it seems like a self-indulgent exercise for its writer-director, a sort of puke-up-your-life-onscreen form of therapy to exorcise some divorce-related demons he's carried around since his youth, maybe. I hope it's helped him out, because anyone else looking for answers from A.C.O.D., humorous or otherwise, is out of luck.