Movie Review – Laggies

In the somewhat predictable tale of a woman in her late 20’s with no real direction in life, Megan (played by Keira Knightly) is coasting. Coasting through relationships with friends and a boyfriend with whom she has very little in common with, coasting through a dead end job provided by her father, essentially coasting through life. Despite having gone to college, Megan’s only relationships/interactions are with those she went to high school with. Friend ringleader, Allison (Ellie Kemper) plays bitchy control-freak all too well as she hones in on Megan’s refusal to grow with the group.

Witnessing her father cheat on her mother and a marriage proposal on the table, Megan leaves her home for a week to truly mull over everything in her life, under the guise of attending a “career seminar,” as she’s not ready to marry her high school sweetheart. She meets a group of high school kids, including Chloe Grace Moretz’s character, Annika, a senior in high school with an overprotective father and nonexistent mother. Megan lives at Annika’s house for a week while waiting for her new apartment. Playing the role of cool older sister/mother figure, Knightly sores at playing the aimless 28 year old with a new found purpose. The unlikely relationship between Megan and Annika’s father, Craig (Sam Rockwell), the hilariously candid and lonely 40-something single dad raising a teen daughter by himself, is a joy to watch. As with all romantic comedies the “lie” in which the story is built on comes undone when Annika discovers that Megan is engaged.

Megan leaves to return to her old life only to learn that she loves her new one that much more. The overall theme of the film is stated in one of the final scenes of Annika’s prom, when Megan is apologizing (little odd that an adult got to go to a high school prom, but I digress). You can’t put aside what you want for some imaginary future. You just have to go with your gut”. After hearing this Annika asks out the boy she likes, giving value the Mary Poppins like portion of the film. Overall this movie had viewers laughing very hard, enough so that we did not find it odd that Megan still has no career despite her week of growth. I enjoyed Laggies despite it’s overambitious plot with little finality in other portions of the main character’s life.