Synopsis
Alternating between the past and the present, a precocious little girl sues her selfish, career-driven parents for emancipation, surprising them both.
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Cast
- Ryan O'NealAlbert Brodsky
- Shelley LongLucy Van Patten Brodsky
- Drew BarrymoreCasey Brodsky
- Sam WanamakerDavid Kessler
- Allen GarfieldPhil Hanner
- Sharon StoneBlake Chandler
- David PaymerAlan Sluiser
- Jenny GagoTracy
- David GrafBink
- Hortensia ColoradoMaria Hernandez
Recommendations
- 88
Chicago Sun-Times
Irreconcilable Differences is sometimes cute, and is about mean parents, but it also is one of the funnier and more intelligent movies of 1984, and if viewers can work their way past the ungainly title, they're likely to have a surprisingly good time. - 67
The A.V. Club
Differences would have benefited from a more cerebral lead actor, but O’Neal does a good job of capturing Bogdanovich’s ingratiating passion for cinema and his fatal hubris, and the script scores some clever jabs at the vapid self-absorption of show-biz types. - 60
TV Guide Magazine
Shyer's direction was on the money most of the time but was just a little flabby occasionally--perhaps because he cowrote the script with Meyers and hated to lose a precious word. - 50
Chicago Reader
Only the engaging lightness of the two lead performances prevents the film from falling into utter treacliness. - 50
Variety
Irreconcilable Differences begins strongly as a human comedy about a nine-year-old who decides to take legal action to divorce her parents. Unfortunately, this premise is soon jettisoned for a rather familiar tale of a marriage turned sour as shown step-by-step. - 50
Christian Science Monitor
Directed by Charles Shyer, who brings much imagination to the first half but loses all momentum in the homestretch. [04 Oct 1984, p.27] - 40
The New York Times
Mr. Shyer has no idea how to frame this material, let alone make it funny. Most of Irreconcilable Differences is terribly flat; the camerawork is dim and unflattering, the sets are bare even when they're supposed to look lived in and some of the dialogue is simply beyond the actors. - 40
Washington Post
The film aspires to some sort of commentary about the modern problems of career-minded spouses. Shyer and Meyers are trying to tap a modern vein but they don't know where to put the needle; all they get is water. This is a film with Perrier in its veins. [28 Sep 1984, p.C4]
