Laggies
I buy that Keira Knightley has played a lot of different characters: King Arthur’s Guinevere, Jane Austen heroine Elizabeth Bennet and even swashbuckling pirate Elizabeth Swann. And yet, perhaps even because of her lengthy career playing strong women, I don’t buy her as a directionless 20-something.
Even harder to believe is that said 20-something can fix 10 years of bad decisions and wasted time in just one week — and with the help of two total strangers, no less.
Such is the plot of Laggies, which opens in theaters today. The film follows Megan (Knightley, Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit), who, at 28, is still dating her high school boyfriend and works as a sign spinner despite having an advanced degree. An unexpected marriage proposal throws Megan into a quarter-life crisis, and she escapes her family and friends by hiding out at the home of her new 16-year-old friend Annika (Chloë Grace Moretz, The Equalizer) and Annika’s single dad (Sam Rockwell, Loitering with Intent).
The story likely sounds familiar, as though it’s already been done, and that’s because it has. Millennial soul-searching — always female loners among a group of perfectly successful friends — is practically its own genre of film these days. Sometimes it works (see: Bridesmaids), and sometimes it doesn’t (see: well, Laggies).
The root of the film’s problems lies in Megan’s portrayal as something of an unsympathetic protagonist. Not only is her inability to assume responsibility childish, but it’s also extremely selfish. We see Megan’s decisions (or, more often than not, lack thereof) hurting those around her, particularly her boyfriend. And yet, she hardly seems to care.
Some of Megan’s friends, also from high school, are a little too self-righteous about having their own lives in order, already getting married and having children. Their constant pleas for Megan to do the same are narrow-minded and annoying, but her utter dismissal of their advice is equally so. It is clear they mean well, but Megan fails to see that, and frustratingly continues to reject growing up altogether.
As a result, it’s hardly surprising she connects with teenage Annika; their age is practically the only difference between them. The ease with which Megan fits into Annika’s lifestyle — attending house parties and shopping for prom dresses — is laughable on the surface but sort of pathetic at heart.
It’s no spoiler that over the course of her week in adolescent asylum with Annika, Megan comes to “find herself.” By the end of the film she makes a sudden, drastic change in her life, but not one that does anything for her long-term.
While many young people can surely relate to feeling lost and unsure of the future, Laggies depicts such a gross exaggeration of that struggle, and viewers will only leave the theater annoyed.
