Laggies

Lynn Shelton, director
Andrea Siegel, script
Starring: Keira Knightley (Megan), Chloe Grace Moretz (Annika), Sam Rockwell (Craig), Ellie Kemper (Allison), Kaitlyn Dever (Misty), Mark Webber (Anthony), Kristen deLohr Helland (Danielle)

Zoomers certainly know about mid-life crises but how many recall having a tough time in their 20s? In Laggies, Keira Knightley plays Megan, who is finding it difficult to turn the corner to adulthood as she moves past her first quarter-century. Megan’s friends are getting married and having babies and she is, well, not sure about anything.

When her high school sweetheart, who she’s been living with for ages, proposes to her, Megan panics. Running out on one of her best friend’s weddings, she ends up buying booze for underage high- schoolers and hanging out with them all night. The next day, when Annika, her new 16-year-old friend, calls her to impersonate her mother and get her out of a jam in school, she does it.

Soon, she’s crashing in Annika’s bedroom, having told her boyfriend and best girlfriends that she’s going for a weeklong seminar on how to get control of her life. All seems good until Megan meets Annika’s single dad, Craig, who is a lawyer and somewhat mature and quickly becomes interested in the beautiful twenty-something spending time with his daughter.

Do we know where this film is going? Yes—and it’s too bad because in the early scenes, Shelton and Knightley convince us that there are reasons why a woman like Megan might find it hard to embrace the unquestioning conformist life of Middle America, West-Coast version.

Fast paced and amusing, Laggies demonstrates that Shelton has a Hollywood future if she wants it. Knightley is fine as the indecisive Megan and Sam Rockwell shines in a rare romantic role. Sadly, Chloe Grace Moretz is under-utilised as Annika.

You won’t have a bad time at Laggies. You’ll just wish you had a better time.

Written by Marc Glassman
Adjunct Professor, Ryerson University
Director, Pages UnBound: the festival and series
Editor, POV Magazine
Editor, Montage Magazine
Film Critic, The New Classical 96.3 FM
Film programmer, Planet in Focus

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