Review: Laggies

Megan (Keira Knightley) is 28 with an adoring boyfriend, an indulgent father, a worried mother, a group of friends entrenched in marriage, motherhood, and career advancement, and no motivation. She's all too content to remain developmentally arrested, serving as a sign girl for her father's company and lazing about at her parents' home instead of seeing a career counselor.

Her friend's wedding unveils two surprises: a proposal from her longtime boyfriend, whose takeaway from a self-help seminar is to be less procrastinating; and her father in a compromising position. The shocks send her driving into the night and alighting upon a grocery-store parking lot where she agrees to buy some alcohol for a group of high schoolers led by Annika (Chloë Grace Moretz). She ends up spending half the night with them, drunkenly reflecting on how distant she feels from her friends: "Maybe they're the ones that are telling the jokes and I'm the one missing them."

After her boyfriend pushes for an immediate elopement, she decides to lie low at Annika's house whilst pretending to attend an out-of-town self-improvement seminar. Though Annika's divorce lawyer dad Craig (Sam Rockwell) finds it questionable for a grown woman to be hanging out with his teenage daughter and her friends, he's good-humoured enough to let Megan stay on as a houseguest. "Don't let this decision become bad parenting on my part," he warns her.

Andrea Seigel's thoughtful screenplay allows the strange setup to explore Megan's uncertainties about marriage and motherhood. Her father's indiscretion and Craig's own divorced status are reminders that marriages are fragile, whilst Annika's attempts to make contact with her long-absent mother (Gretchen Mol) elicit an understanding and compassion that have been lacking in her own life.

It's inevitable that Megan and Craig's relationship would transition from the friendly to the romantic. Rockwell exudes such effortless charisma that to not couple them would have been unwise and criminal. Knightley herself has charm to spare, delivering a delightful, loose-limbed, and warmhearted performance. Moretz rounds out the trio with an understated and mature turn.

Laggies is a more structured affair than director Lynn Shelton's previous films, which were mostly improvised. The narrative may be a touch too pat and there is an unsettling undercurrent in Megan and Craig's attraction - Craig seems to be partially drawn to Megan's pseudo-adolescence; he doesn't exactly encourage her to figure out what she wants to do in life - but neither detract from an inherently enjoyable film.

Laggies

Directed by: Lynn Shelton

Written by: Andrea Seigel

Starring: Keira Knightley, Sam Rockwell, Chloë Grace Moretz, Kaitlyn Dever, Ellie Kemper, Mark Webber, Jeff Garlin, Gretchen Mol