Why So Blu?

A.C.O.D. (Blu-ray Review)

Hi, I’m Brandon Peters and I am not an A.C.O.D.  My wife is also not a member of the Adult Children Of Divorce.  So, I really don’t know what that whole thing is like, even though growing up I’ve had friends and dated women that have had divorced parents.  I’ve only witnessed things as an outsider, so I’m not gonna tackle this review pointing out the accuracies and inaccuracies of the topic at hand.  Why?  I’m not the expert and I’m not gonna act like I am.  The stuff in the film seemed real enough to me, but I can’t weigh in on experience.  I suppose my experience in life is more closer to Lauren in the film’s, but my parents and grandparents have never celebrated really odd numbered anniversary dates.

Film 

Carter is an A.C.O.D.  An Adult Child Of Divorce.  His parents had a nasty divorce when he turned 9 and have been battling each other with him in the middle since.  He’s doing ok though, he’s got a great girlfriend of 4 years and owns his own restaurant.  When his brother gets engaged and wants both parents present at his wedding, Carter’s world slowly begins to spin out of control.  At first he reunites his parents to be civil with each other and things seem ok.  But, when his parents begin an affair and he discovers a book has been written about his childhood, his life begins to sputter out of control.

A.C.O.D. is the directorial debut of Steve Zicherman, the writer of Elektra!  Do not let that scare you away, as this movie is more a passion project than a studio assignment for him.  And he does a great job marrying both drama and comedy for this film that touches on some heavy subject matter.  He manages to make a film about divorce and one man’s crisis to be fun, engaging and somewhat educational.  It wasn’t the out and out comedy that the case for this Blu-ray might suggest.  But, its got that sort of pleasant atmosphere and when they do strike with a big joke it usually hits.

The cast of this film is a big part of what enhances this feature.  Adam Scott leads this cast and provides further evidence that he’s one of the best straight men working in comedy nowadays.  I shouldn’t have to tell you that, but numbers tell me America would rather be watching spoon-fed easy joke comedies on Thursdays than innovative, thoughtful and creative ones (hey, I get bitter when the shows I enjoy get canceled J).  Not just soley Parks & Rec either, let’s not forget the short lived and very awesome Party Down.  Scott gives a performance that has you with him, but allows you to really see the cracks and faults this guy has.  I’m glad he’s given this little smaller vehicle as a lead as he’s pretty underused as a lead character in bigger comedies and he’s one of the best assets working now.

The rest of the cast contains a lot of favorites.  It had the wonderfully talented and beautiful and talented Mary Elizabeth Winstead for me to swoon over.  Clark Duke gets a rather unique turn as doesn’t really bring his “Clark Duke-ness” to the table all too often here.  He’s given a more regular role and its odd at first, being used to what I normally get from the guy, but I think he really shows he could have some range throughout the runtime.  It was nice to see one of film history’s best comedic women in a significant role in a movie again, too as Catherine O’Hara shows that she’s still got it.  Richard Jenkins, Amy Poehler and Jane Lynch round out the cast and are as good as you expect them to be when you see them on a cast list.

ACOD is a solid film that featured a cast stockpiled with actors I enjoyed seeing in movies.  The film manages to have a great balance of comedy and drama without ever feeling too overbearing on the drama part.  Adam Scott once again shines as the straight man lead in a comedy.  It’s a solid film that many probably didn’t see in theaters, but hopefully can check out now.  Stay during the credits as there’s a cute little montage of clips with the cast and crew.

Video 

The ACOD comes in at an AVC encoding of 1080p MPEG-4 (not funny? Ok).  Framing at 1:78.1, the picture is nice sharp and defined, but very dark.  Anything black or close to it melds together in the picture and lacks any real detail.  However, on the other spectrum of things, colorful items are very high in detail.  The colored bricks feature all sort of detail on wear and tear.  Skin tones are very consistent and feature as a nice compliment for all the performers involved.  The picture should be more than enough to please as it is able to hit really great marks in a lot of places.

Audio 

ACOD comes into your earwaves in a 5.1 DTS-HD MA surround track that does its job and is very solid.  This isn’t really a movie that demands too much from a big track like this.  But, it gets the vocals down terrifically and that’s what really matters here.  Sound effects are solid and not very overbearing.  The score is set at the perfect level and is no engulfing or overbearing.  This is all the track you need and it does its job to the degree you’d expect.

Extras 

The extras on this disc are pretty much effortless EPK material  Some is fun and informative but its all very short.

Cast & Crew Discussions About A.C.O.D. (HD, 5:35) – Pieces of a Q&A and interviews with cast and crew about the topic in the film and getting it put into production.

Amy Poehler Outtakes (HD, :39) – Okay, so you got Amy Poehler in the movie in a very small capacity. Congrats.  Said role is not all too outlandish and humorous.  So you take this one bit of her yelling about a fire and put all the takes from it here.  And none of them are very funny.  Well done.

What Does A.C.O.D. Stand For? (HD, :42) – Jane Lynch in character has a humorous promo bit using different words for the letters in ACOD.

Public Service Announcements – These are cute little promotional bits featuring Adam Scott, Clark Duke, Jane Lynch and Catherine O’Hara.

• Coping With A.C.O.D. (HD, 1:18)
• Be Proud To Be An A.C.O.D. (HD, 1:35)
• Have You Seen A Shaman? (HD, 1:27)
• Are You Awesome? (HD, 1:01)
• Commitment-Phobic? (HD, 1:07)

Summary 

Paramount delivers a solid film with a good presentation.  I have to rate this disc on the film alone because the extras really aren’t anything very noteworthy (to me).  The film itself is solid and very fun despite the subject matter being the depressing topic of divorce and a man’s “existential crisis” dealing with it at a later age.  It’s thoughtful, has a great cast and delivers some really good laughs.  I’d definitely recommend you give it a shot.