Laggies – Overview/ Review (with Spoilers)

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Overview

After spending a decade floating through life, letting other people make decisions for her, within a week a young woman has two epiphanies that drastically change her life.

Review (with Spoilers)

Between Keira Knightley, whose career I used to be obsessed with; Chloe Grace Moretz, who I see nearly every movie of nowadays; and Sam Rockwell, there were multiple reasons to see this movie. However, when it was first released I didn’t feel it was worth the trip to New York to see it. Now, whether I delayed seeing a good movie, or I did right by myself and waited until it came out locally, well look below.

Characters & Story

Since high school, it seems Megan (Keira Knightley) has just floated through life. If someone said to work here, she did; if someone said we should move in together, she did; and over the course of her adult life she never really took control of it. However, once Anthony (Mark Webber) starts talking about marriage, the first serious commitment, since college, Megan would have to participate in, she starts waking up from her dream state and seems quite frightened. So frightened that after meeting Annika (Chloe Grace Moretz), and doing two favors for her, she decides to cash in her favors by asking to spend a week hiding out at Annika’s house. Thus giving her time to get her mind together and understand how she wants to handle her future.

Praise

Being a 20 something-year-old, though younger than Knightley’s character, her character feeling like she was floating through life resonated with me. If just because, even if you have some idea of why you got your BA, at the same time applying it to a job you like is a whole other kettle of fish. So with her talking about seeming overwhelmed with the idea of being an adult before she was necessarily ready, you could understand her just wanting to take a week off and experience life without adult responsibilities, nor the drama of her family.

Leading to us talking about her and story which heavily involved Annika and Craig (Sam Rockwell). With these two come the aforementioned epiphanies in Megan’s life and it leads you to the idea that Megan seeing Annika possibly repeat what she went through was a wakeup call, and then with Craig, again we are presented with Megan being forced to actually have an active role in her life, vs. simply being passive and letting the chips fall where they may. Something I enjoyed watching for it is so easy to become complacent and just let other people take control of your life, especially if it seems that what they are pushing on you is in your best interest. However, with her waking up to how adulthood is, and how she can make it what she wants, I felt the need to take note of my own future and try to more actively craft it. Something I mention solely to say, the film leads to self-reflection and isn’t simply something to distract you from life for an hour and a half.

Criticism

Perhaps my main issue with this film is that I was left hoping that many situations would have been taken further. Something which was an issue I had across the board when it comes to characters. For between Annika and Craig getting abandoned; Megan almost having a nervous breakdown; and this kid named Patrick (Dylan Arnold) dealing with his parents’ divorce, which affects Megan and Craig’s life, I think we could have gotten deeper into the characters’ lives past what was seen.

Overall: TV Viewing

I’m glad I didn’t go out to see this when it first opened, if just because this is not one of those type of movies you must see. For while it isn’t a bad way to kill some time, it certainly isn’t memorable. I mean, it left me a bit reflective about my life, but it just didn’t have the type of story, or performances, which makes you want to advocate that people must see this movie as soon as they can. All it does is get the job done and give you a nice way to kill an hour and a half. Hence the TV Viewing label for while it is no blemish on anyone’s filmography, it isn’t a shining beacon either.

Collected Quote(s)

“When you’re older, you [and your partner] need to be on the same side of who seems stupid.”

— Craig – Laggies