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A woman who is approaching her thirties and still doesn't know what she wants from life (like most of us, I would say), accidentally meets a teenager and uses her to escape responsibility, at least for a short time. A romantic comedy elevated from mediocrity by a rather realistic depiction of the mental state that most of us go through at some point in our lives. Some go through it maturely and responsibly, even painlessly, but many bring themselves into tragicomic situations as the heroine of this film. Partly because I found myself in this story to some extent, and partly because of Keira Knightley and Chloë Grace Moretz, I have to rate it at least a little higher than it objectively deserves.

7/10

Laggies would have been too big a mirror put up to my twenty-something crises-ed life were it not for the comedic value of the whole she-bang.

That's mildly dramatic but really Laggies is a very original take on the quarter-life crises beseeching the Millennial generation.

Megan (Keira Knightley) is an underachieving twenty-something resigned to an underwhelming existence of still dating her high school boyfriend and working for her father. Her friends are all doing the things you're supposed to be doing when you are in your mid-to-late twenties: getting married, having babies, buying a house, etcetera etctera. With a quarter-life crisis imminently on the horizon, Megan retreats to the home of new found friend Annika (Chloe Grace Moretz), a sixteen year old high school student.

The term Laggies comes from Megan's profoundly underwhelming inferior performance in life below her potential. She is in this debilitatingly immobilizing limbo of the mid-twenties when, having done what you thought you were supposed to do and following the path you thought you were supposed to follow, you find yourself 'here' but 'here' isn't where you want to be. Andrea Seigel's screenplay does a good job of satirically making fun of the trends Milennials are doing nowadays as they 'play' house – like first dances and potential baby names.

A good movie will have characters and themes you can identify with, that will help put a mirror to life and help you engage with the narrative. For some 20-somethings most of the film and Keira Knightley's portrayal of an existential crisis may be a bit too close for comfort. Thankfully Chloe Grace Moretz's character has a dad played by Sam Rockwell. Rockwell is the shining light of a comic savior within the film and lifts up the depressing moments of story to a entertainingly watchable movie.

Laggies is a fun one-time watch for 20-somethings to realize they could be more messed up and to find the humor within the perplexities of burgeoning adulthood.

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Just what does it mean to really 'grow up'? As kids, many of us no doubt assumed that maturity and independence would naturally follow once we hit a certain age. But, as most of us have since discovered, that isn't necessarily true: people can easily be adults in age but children in attitude. Laggies, an affable film with quirky indie sensibilities and a great cast, explores these issues with quite a lot of charm and genuine humour, although its odd plotting fails to live up to its characters in the end.

Megan (Keira Knightley) is stuck. Ten years after graduating from high school, her friends have all moved on with their lives and accumulated the accoutrements of adulthood: jobs, husbands, babies. Only Megan remains stalled in permanent adolescence, temping for her dad and living with her doting high-school boyfriend Anthony (Mark Webber). When Anthony's proposal of marriage forces her to contemplate leaving her commitment-free comfort zone, Megan takes refuge in the home of Annika (Chloe Moretz), a high-school girl who begs Megan for help in buying alcohol. In the course of a week, Megan discovers that there's more to life than idling in first gear, and draws closer to Annika and her dad, lawyer Craig (Sam Rockwell).

There's actually quite a lot to enjoy in Laggies, even if its ending is a foregone conclusion. Andrea Seigel's screenplay is sharp and smart, developing her characters into something more than stereotypes. There's a gentle, deep undertow of understanding in Megan's budding friendship with Annika - one which brings them both to a bittersweet meeting with Bethany (Gretchen Mol), the mom who abandoned Annika for a new career as a lingerie model. As played tenderly by Knightley and Rockwell, the way in which Megan is drawn towards Craig also makes sense, even if their connection feels a little forced.

The performances are also top-notch. Knightley delivers one of her most fascinating creations yet: a woman who has drifted through rather than lived her life for years, not daring to sever ties to her past but afraid to forge into the future. Her Megan is spiky and sweet, appealing even when the character's flaws threaten to overwhelm. Rockwell's part is a bit undercooked, but he's such a great actor that he lends Craig's attraction to Megan all the credibility denied it by the script. Moretz, too, is great as always, slipping into the troubled skin of Annika and creating another lost girl with plenty of spunk.

Where Laggies falters is in its final act. The last third of the film has a few great moments, including a heartrending encounter between Megan and Anthony that shouldn't work as well as it does. But it also degenerates steadily into cliché, abandoning much of its offbeat humour and complex characters for twists both odd (Megan's reaction to a car accident begs the question: is that really how a grown-up should respond to the situation?) and predictable (Megan's epiphany is a textbook rom-com moment).

In effect, Laggies stops growing, just as Megan did for ten years of her life. At the end, it provides easy answers for its characters after spending most of its running time suggesting that there are no such things: that the real world is complicated and people aren't perfect, that growing up takes effort and doesn't happen by default. This doesn't mean that the film isn't watchable - it very much is, and will reward viewers with some truly lovely moments of wry humour and quirky characterisation along the way. But its undeniable charm is also what makes Laggies' ending all the more disappointing.

Laggies is all about growing up, with its main character unable to take life seriously. The film explores to several compelling points of moving on to adulthood. Then it takes to a quirkier turn where Megan tries to make another life with a younger crowd where she feels more accepted of who she is. This is meant to be a story about getting away from the comfort zone, the movie does bring a lot of acknowledgment of why this is supposed to be the right thing, but it resolves to a more comfortable type of ending which doesn't live up much to what it wants to say. Thankfully, most of it is undeniably delightful and clever, delivered by charming talents on screen. This isn't probably what Laggies is meant to be, but there is still a lot of reasons why you should like it, anyway.

The film started out in a compellingly tough state for the main character; having less fun with her old high school friends and dealing with other complicated issues. She's basically avoiding from those personal troubles of how life has changed and finding a way to completely run away from them. Once she meets her new set of younger friends, it leads to a build up of a much different purpose. The story carries Megan with heavy questions, but the movie doesn't seem to have the guts of being challenging, thus results to an easier solution with her problems. This is probably not a bad thing, but it could have gone a little deeper. But the sweetness didn't rob much of the value. The film's own charming world alone at least makes things memorable.

What totally benefits here is the cast. Keira Knightley just perfectly captures her character's teen-like personality without making it look inappropriately weird. Sam Rockwell's magnetic charisma just brings a lot of likable impact at every scene he is in. Chloë Grace Moretz does her usual thing and there's definitely nothing wrong with that. These talents just makes it work. The movie already handles its own humor cleverly without making each of them feel forced, unlike most comedies out there. Maybe letting these stars come around and talk into each other already makes for a worth of watch.

Laggies kind of drops its "growing up" intentions and instead tells something about being happy about your own decisions, or something like that. The message it brings in the end is definitely not the one that it once tried to show, maybe because the film decided that they wanted to go conventional to that point. And the movie seems to be alright with that, which is sort of a strange aspect. But the best way to see the movie is just letting the talents bring it to life in their small lighter moments, it's a far more entertaining movie if that's the focus. There are still things that could have made it much engaging, but there's already a good movie in here that would instantly appeal the audience.

Laggies is a "coming of age" romantic comedy with a twist as the main character is not an adolescent, but is 28 years old. The film is not exceptional, but it is enjoyable, and its performances and story progression help to elevate an average film overall. Laggies begins by telling the story of Megan (played by Keira Knightley) whose longtime boyfriend (played by Mark Webber) has just proposed to her. Megan, having also just found out her father (played by Jeff Garlin) is having an extramarital affair, experiences a bit of an identity crisis, and doesn't know quite how to respond to her own marriage proposal. She plans a fake trip, in order to escape from her boyfriend for a week, and finds herself in the house of her newly found, 16 year old girlfriend, Annika (played by Chloe Grace Moretz), and her single, stern father, Craig, (played by Sam Rockwell).

The main characters go through changes as they begin to know each other. Megan starts out as a manipulative lying person who uses people, but as the film continues, she realizes this is not what she wants and begins to take charge of her own life by becoming more responsible. The character of Annika goes from being a risky teenager to becoming more of her own person, even confronting her own mother. Her father, Craig, goes through a character progression as he becomes less stuck-up and more of a person who actually cares for other people. All of three of the main characters story arcs nicely parallel each other. Out of all of the character arcs, I found Megan's due to Keira Knightley's performance, to be the most believable.

However, I did have my issues with this film. I found the boyfriend of the film, Anthony, to be a bit of a push-over and too much of a plot device. He gets introduced, gets a few scenes and then reappears during the climax. Another thing that bugged about the film, was an absurd scene where Knightley has to pose as Moretz's mother and I couldn't honestly believe that anyone would honestly believe that Knightley and Moretz were mother and daughter, what with the twelve years difference, and looking more like sisters.

There are some interesting directing choices by Lynn Shelton, including having the film start out with a flashback and then cutting to ten years later. As well as Knightley's introduction, where we see her listening to a CD player on the streets as she holds up a sign advertising her father's accounting business where she works. Check it out for yourself, and see what you think of it.

I love to see Keira Knightly, and Chloë Grace Moretz In a movie together (-) it's pretty cool! I'm a fan of both actresses, so once I stumbled across this movie in my suggested column, I bought the film on dvd for like 7 bucks; and I can assure you it was well worth the 7 dollars.

On the other hand, I can find similarities in being viewed as a "Laggie," because there are certain aspects of adulting I have not yet mastered, or fully embraced. Similarly, through Meghan's experiences you noticed her withdrawal from the convention's of typical adult behavior because of the pressures that come with it.

Everyone expects you to find a career, start a family, get married, have kids, and send them off to college on this repetitious cycle. But the reality of this norm is that this system isn't intended to work for everyone. People have different purposes in life, and this doesn't always have to align with the traditional way of doing things.

Therefore, this movie touches base on not allowing human confinement, and public assertions to dictate how you should live your life. All of the expectations, obligations, and lofty judgments are sometimes suffocating to the point that it becomes a burden rather than a motivator.

In addition, laggie refers to an individual lagging behind, but doesn't necessarily mean that it is done to self sabotage. It could be interrupted to taking time to reflect, and self evaluate one's journey rather than just doing things aimlessly and impulsively. That's why it's so important to realize that everybody's timing is different, and regardless of how far along you are, life is a blessing (-) not a burden. It should be lived one moment at a time.

Keira Knightley's character was hard to like at times. It may be that she closely resembled my ex in how poorly she made decisions, never considering the effects her choices had on anyone else. But that's pretty real, I guess. And her character develops well over the course of the film. I think she finally gets it, but I would have a hard time ever trusting someone like her (again).

It's not that I don't like a mixed protagonist. It's just that I wanted to shake her at different moments, and yell, "What are you doing?! Are you even thinking at all?!" But one would probably think that of me, watching my life from the outside. It's convicting, considering that we're all mixed protagonists in our own lives.

Sam Rockwell is consistently supreme in his ability to deliver performances that produce audible laughter from me. I'll pretty much watch anything he does, and though sometimes the film is mediocre, he is always exceptional—I never regret the decision to watch.

If you're looking for some great Sam Rockwell movies, check out "The Way Way Back" and "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind". He's great in everything I've seen him in, though.

Wasn't expecting to like this film as much as I did.

First, Sam Rockwell has got to be one of the best actors to work with. He is naturally so cool and his confidence on screen must be contagious. I have never seen him put up anything but an A-Game level performance.

Second, no one plays the girl we all want to fall in love with (who is sincere, cool, fun, and romantic) than Kiera Knightley. Kiera and Sam? Would never see it working on paper. Totally worked on the screen.

Third, Chloe Grace Moretz is one talented and poised young actress whose resume is amazing at such a young age. I anticipate Chloe will take home a lot of hardware in her career.

Finally, Lynn Shelton paces this film perfectly. Her best effort to date.

I love this movie. I just saw it for the 3rd time (May 2020)... Trust me, and see this movie. Let the story develop and unfold ("wait for it"), and I bet you say the same thing by the end.

Nicely done to all involved! 👏👏👏

This film tells the story of a woman who escapes from her life and finds companionship with a teenage girl, after her boyfriend proposes to her during her best friend's wedding.

"Laggies" shows Megan as a person who runs from the things she want in her life. She strikes up an unlikely friendship with a teenage girl, and they both help each other grow. Another subplot is a romantic comedy subplot between Megan and the lonely lawyer, which I think is more engaging than the main plot. Sam Rockwell is charming as a lonely lawyer, and he is a good match with Keira Knightley in this film. I would have liked to see more of this subplot, and I would not even mind if the story is changed to a romantic comedy between these two!

There is a winning quality to this romantic comedy about a girl in her 20s (Knightley) in a bit of a mid 20s crisis after being proposed to by her boyfriend. She befriends a teenage girl (Moretz) and her divorced father (Rockwell). It starts off a bit slow but then you realize gradually the characters are all quite likable even when they are doing something wrong. This understated treatment of the more serious moments makes it more effective especially the visit to the mother (Mol). Avoids melodrama which would have spoilt the tone of the movie.

Keira Knightley makes her 20s finding herself girl surprisingly sympathetic and identifiable. Throughout her mistakes you still root for her. Chloe Grace Moretz is a standout as always. She gives a sensitive performance and doesn't overact. Amidst all the recent movies a likable teenager character on film is kind of rare. Sam Rockwell plays the father quite charmingly.

Overall one the better indie rom coms of late and worth a watch.

I was expecting more hilarious and absurd comedy, I mean the summary made it sound like it could be that. But Laggies turned out to be deeper. It reminded me of Liberal Arts by Josh Radnor, since both movies deal with growing up, etcetera.

Megan was easy to relate to as a character. Even though her character seemed to revolve a lot around how she felt "out of place" and unsure, she didn't become a simple symbol of said feeling. She had other traits too. Even though there has been better written characters, I liked her a lot.

I love how the message isn't really about finding your own place in the world, it's more like it's alright if you don't have it all figure out. Life just happens.

I really liked Laggies, though it wasn't at all what I was expecting. It was fun, light and still meaningful. This movie is entertainment you don't have to start analysing, but you still can, because it really does have a purpose. I would warmly recommend this movie to anyone.

The story of a 20 something year old having to face "real life" is very relatable. The story of that 20 something year old making friends with a high school student, OK sure it's possible. The story of that 20 something year old hiding out for a week with that high school student at her single dads house, that's starting to stretch it a little. The story gets a little far-fetched when the single dad allows this 20 something year old stay in his house while she "waits to move into her apartment." I'm pretty sure no one would do that irl, except I suppose if it's Keira Knightley. Keira Knightley always pretty, acting is sometimes questionable, but well done in this film. Chloe Grace Moretz who I usually like and is destined for a long successful career added another positive credit to her resume. Sam Rockwell, always good, never enough screen time. Is that how he does it? Overall the film was good humored with sympathetic characters. I just call bs on one issue which only barely affected my likeness of the film. This film had strong performances from the cast and fluid directing. Overall I'd say 6.6/Z

Nothing is as simultaneously sad, darkly funny, and enlightening as someone who has peaked in high school. Part of you wants to bust out laughing as they talk about their teenage BFF as if they were still friends, not realizing that they're nearing middle-age and are speaking with a voice that is sugar-coated with debilitating denial. But the other part of you wants to kneel down and pray that your greatest accomplishment won't be defiantly doing doughnuts in the parking lot of senior prom. Let's face it; no one wants their best years to be behind them instead of directly ahead.

Nearing 30, Megan (Keira Knightley) doesn't yet realize that she has, excuse the term just one more time, peaked in high school. The majority of her friends have lustrous careers, blissful marriages, and Instagram famous kids, but she, despite a plentiful college education, is still dating her high school sweetheart and is still working as a sign-shaker for her father's business while she pretends like she's planning for a future career. She has no motivation and no urgency, but when her boyfriend (Mark Webber) proposes, she has a sort of panic attack, telling him she's going to away for a week for a career fair when she's actually wandering around the city trying not to lose it.

That's when she stumbles into Annika (Chloë Grace Moretz), a smug 16-year old who she meets outside a liquor store. Megan knows that she's much too old to be palling around with a hormonally-charged young woman, but, desperate to escape her adult responsibilities, she spends the week at Annika's house. Annika's father, Craig (Sam Rockwell), is concerned; like most parents, he's only a little worried that his daughter is hanging out with an adult as if she's a gal pal with a mutual respect for One Direction. But as Megan's responsibilities become increasingly real, and Craig's presence becomes a mounting temptation, she begins to rethink her life, wondering if it really is time to change things up after nearly three decades of unrelenting comfort.

Lynn Shelton (Humpday, Your Sister's Sister) can get away with nearly anything she wants; with one eye focused on realism and the other shrouded in a slightly sarcastic tone, even the most meager material is enlivened by an energizing, intimate voice. Laggies is one of her most commercial films; it is the first project she didn't write herself (that credit goes to Andrea Seigel, who is making her screen writing debut), and the first to feature an ensemble of well-established stars. While slightly conventional in comparison to her many asymmetric works, Laggies is always a pleasure.

It is an authentic study of someone who is having a serious identity crisis, but it remains persistently charming even when the film threatens to go down the road more traveled by. Knightley, who has spent the last few years confronting herself with offbeat roles, is as pathetic and likable as Megan should be; her decisions are poor, but anyone who has lived life as though they were a teenager for nearly a decade can only be cut some slack. Rockwell steals scene after scene as the smart alecky Craig, and Moretz, continuing to impress throughout her short career, is appealing as the unsettled Annika.

Engagingly witty but unafraid to answer some hard questions about the nobodies who are forced to deal with the perils of a damning quarter-life crisis, Laggies can be lightweight and it can also go deep; it isn't just surface, and that's why it doesn't drift away in a sea of indie movie witchery.

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Knightley's "revelation" in the end is frustratingly cheap, and in a lesser movie could've ruined the whole thing. Instead, it just leaves a (admittedly deep) scar on an otherwise sweet-natured and funny indie. All the performances are solid, with Rockwell especially deftly pulling off a fairly silly character with more than a few inflated moments. It's a solid argument for growing up, in spite of our sadly infuriating tendencies to stay young.

Ever feel like you have spent far too much of your life wandering around and trying to please everyone else?

I would say that after my last Keira Knightly adventure with Mark Ruffalo and now this movie, I am just about ready to have her as my friend. It was so hard to like her after all that fawning over her looks in other movies. She is really a charming actress and made my day with this performance. Apparently she replaced Anne Hathaway at the last minute. It is hard to imagine Ms. Hathaway in the role because Keira Knightly owns it so completely. I usually find the performances of Brits who play Americans strangely flat, but Ms. Knightly is one good exception to the rule. She falls into her role and seems to use her outsider status as an asset which works within the premise of the movie.

Sam Rockwell is incredible. What is it about that man? He has a very sexy brain. If he were one tiny bit better looking his seductive capacity would be less mesmerizing, so thank heaven for small favors.

Have fun!

"I like getting older. When you're in your twenties you're really forging for your future. Things take shape later on." Crispin Glover

A twenty-something looking for love today is a wanderer pretty much without a compass, and so it goes in Laggies, an engaging and sometimes humorous film from Lynn Shelton. Megan (Keira Knightly) has obtained a graduate degree but looks like she is still graduating into maturity, and not quite a sophomore in that school. She's getting engaged but uncertain about the commitment to sweet Anthony (Mark Webber), partly because she doesn't want to be coerced by others' expectations and gradually she's attracted to the father, Craig (Sam Rockwell), of her young friend, Annika (Chloe Grace Moretz).

Yes, it's confusing although most of us know life is messy at best anyway. Megan's existential crisis is precipitated by her meeting high school senior Annika and her friends, who throw Megan back into that uncertain but semi-carefree time, giving Megan the present time to assess her future plans. Her defining characteristic is to live her life on her own terms, even though that plan is murky and her backbone not yet fully formed to pull it off.

Although future plans are what her friends' demand of her, Megan resists the easy formulas for marriage and its aftermath. In a real sense, she questions why she should be fixed in the formula of adulthood. Therein lies the gem-like center of Laggies, where her soul cries for individuality and society dictates an adherence to rituals of conformity.

While at times Knightly' s hesitating, halting speech patterns cause me discomfort, I can live with the affectations (more appropriate for a teen than a twenty something) as writer Andrea Siegel probes for the nexus of teen turbulence, a time of identity crisis that in Megan's case extends too far into her twenties. Laggies is an entertaining film for exploring the challenges a twenty something faces if she hasn't figured out her goals yet.

Well, someone does mention carpe diem, so I guess it's fair to say the film finds that peace and identity in the present, where whether one marries or not does extend into the rest of one's life. By the way, I'm not happy that a woman's happiness is once again determined by the romantic love, but, hey, that's showbiz.

Yes it has Keira Knightley and Chloë Grace Moretz in it , so you'd think it might be that good yet the plot of the movie was not that clear or must say was shattered in so many places !! so you'd think about this girl who just run away from being mature and real life and being stuck in the past of her adulthood dreams trying to cheat on her fiancé and well it's okay for her and in the last minute when things get real and she realizes that okay she must grow up she just storm off again from getting married to just have another fling with some lonely A-hole lawyer "as you'd get from the scenario" who will probably leave here when the time comes or even most probably she will leave him thinking she'd made another mistake,, so i can't really figure out whether she actually went from being mature to being playful and shaky on decisions or it was the other way around ... or maybe that was the whole point of the whole story !!

To be fair , the production was well put and directing seems to be helped in a way, the casting was okay but a bit overrated i mean they could'v gone with "well" let's say less famous or even less talented leading actors and movie would'v come out as it is today but commercializing and all of that is understandable, yet again the storyline and the writing was a bit problematic and focused on one point of view ,,

Maybe if there was more minutes showing us how "Megan" will break up again with the lawyer guy it would be a bit better. ;)

Megan (Keira Knightley) has been part of a group of eight friends since childhood. Six of the members have married off between them. However, Megan and her "partner" have lagged behind. In addition to this, Megan is confused about continuing her chosen profession in marital counseling, as she is having a total quarter life crisis. Lo and behold, at another wedding, Megan's beau gets down on one knee. In a panic, Megan secretly leaves the reception and ends up near a carryout, where Annika (Chloe Grace Moretz) is waiting, with friends, to find a stooge to buy booze for them. Its Megan. She agrees to do so, with some scruples. Soon, a friendship develops between the older gal and the high school student. Thus, Annika asks Megan to pose as her divorced mother in a counseling session at school while Megan asks Annika if she can lay low at her house for a week, avoiding her almost-fiancé. It happens but Annika's DAD, Craig (Sam Rockwell) has to give his permission first. This offbeat, divorce lawyer is skeptical but Megan wins him over. Now, Annika and Megan both have each other to "find their ways" respectively. Hold on, what if Megan's search leads her to fall for someone else? This lovely, inventive movie should have been given big advertising bucks when it was released but, as it was, no one discovered it. In my town, Toledo, it was around for a solitary week. I missed it, so thank heavens for libraries. Knightley, Moretz, and Rockwell are flat-out wonderful while the supporting players do nice jobs, too. Scenery, costumes, the tremendous script and the comical direction make Laggies a total delight. Don't lag, folks, this one is meant to be seen ASAP.

Not that I'm a big fan of Rom Coms, and I'm not a fan of Keira Knightley,at least not enough to run to the movies to see what she's doing. Her performance seemed to be hammed up like she was the next Meg Ryan.

I went to see it cause I'm a huge fan of Chloë Grace Moretz and she was amazing in the film.

Sam Rockwell was also worth the price of a ticket. It's been ages since I've seen him do something that exploits his charm and humor.

The chemistry between Sam & knightley was also worth the price of a ticket itself.

Predictable af. Terrible writing. Fell asleep multiple times. If you enjoy torturing yourself, watch this flick.