From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Irreconcilable Differences
Directed by	Charles Shyer
Produced by	Richard Hashimoto Nancy Meyers Arlene Sellers Alex Winitsky
Written by	William A. Fraker Nancy Meyers Charles Shyer
Starring	Ryan O'Neal Shelley Long Drew Barrymore
Cinematography	William A. Fraker
Editing by	John F. Burnett
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	September 28, 1984
Running time	114 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	appx. $5 M (USD)
IMDb profile

Irreconcilable Differences is a 1984 Comedy-Drama starring Ryan O'Neal, Shelley Long, and Drew Barrymore. The film was a minor box office success, making over $12 million, and reviews were generally favorable. ^[1] For their performances, both Shelley Long and Drew Barrymore were nominated for Golden Globe Awards.

The film was based in part on the divorce of collaborators Polly Platt and Peter Bogdanovich over actress Cybill Shepherd. Many aspects of the film's plot overlapped into the lives of the film's cast and crew. In one scene, Drew Barrymore's nine year-old character drinks champagne. In real life, Barrymore would battle with alcoholism and strained family relationships. The husband-wife screenwriting team of Nancy Meyers and Charles Shyer separated in 2000. In 2005, Shelley Long separated from her husband of twenty-four years. Sharon Stone developed a reputation as a homewrecker, when producer Bill McDonald left his wife Naomi Baca after they met on Sliver (1993). She would later break up with McDonald.^[2]

Meeting on the road, amateur writer Lucy (Shelley Long) and film professor Albert (Ryan O'Neal) fell in love, married, and had a daughter Casey (Drew Barrymore) together. When Albert's career shifts into overdrive as an acclaimed film director, his attentions are drawn to young starlet Blake Chandler (Sharon Stone), their marriage is strained to the breaking point and Albert takes all the credit for his work and leaves none to Lucy, who helped him write the scripts to his hit films. After their divorce, Lucy channels her frustrations with their old union into a bestselling book, making her the toast of the town on the literati circuit. But what the two of them fail to realize is that in all of their egotism, selfishness and complete focus on their careers, their relationship sours with their precocious daughter (Drew Barrymore). Emotionally browbeaten after the years of neglect, the independent Casey makes the ultimate decision: to divorce her parents, which comes as a complete surprise to both her folks.

• Best Actress - Comedy or Musical (Shelley Long)
• Best Supporting Actress (Drew Barrymore)

• Irreconcilable Differences at the Internet Movie Database

v • d • e American films of the 1980s
1980 •1981 •1982 •1983 •1984 •1985 •1986 •1987 •1988 •1989