Movie Review: Laggies

Despite lead actresses Chloe Grace Moretz and Keira Knightley having great onscreen chemistry, Laggies fails to capture the hearts of its audience.

By Lilian Lee

PHOTO: A24 Films

Laggies

Comedy, Drama (PG13)
Chloë Grace Moretz, Keira Knightley, Sam Rockwell
99 minutes

Laggies is American screenwriter-cum-director Lynn Shelton’s (Your Sister’s Sister, Touchy Feely) ninth directorial feature, but it is the first she did not screenwrite, and it shows. What could have been a promising film is let down by a dreary script, with punchlines that fail to draw laughter.

A meeting between a jobless woman in her 20s and a high school girl on a fateful night heralds the most unlikely of friendships. Megan (Keira Knightley) meets Annika (Chloë Grace Moretz) outside a supermarket when seventeen-year-old Annika cajoles her older acquaintance to purchase alcohol for her and her friends. The night ends with Megan joining the neighbourhood motley crew, indulging in teenage activities such as skateboarding and toilet papering houses.

On one hand, there’s happy-go-lucky Megan, a carefree young woman with a degree and loving boyfriend. Yet, something seems amiss — Megan feels that her fairy-tale romance only got so far because she and her beau were voted best couple in their senior year of high school. Relationship aside, she feels stuck in a rut because she has not found her calling in life.

On the other hand lies Annika, a high school senior who is equally lost in the murky waters of life. Brought up single-handedly by her father, Annika is your typical latchkey child who yearns for the motherly care and concern she never had. Her issues with her mother’s abandonment leaves her struggling to make sense of her relationship with a boy who sends her mixed signals.

While Megan’s adult friends stifle her with didactic conversations and judgments about her life, Annika and her teenage friends embrace Megan wholeheartedly, prompting her to escape her predicament by seeking refuge at Annika’s.

Not just another coming-of-age movie, Laggies manages to interweave the crises of its two female leads. Despite their age gap, Annika and Megan complement each other’s needs perfectly; Megan provides Annika with grown-up advice about teenage life, boys, makeup and fashion while Annika is an unconditional friend to Megan and provides her with a temporary lodging as the latter attempts to sort out her life.

The undeniable chemistry between Knightley and Moretz lends credibility to the otherwise improbable friendship. The two characters share poignant and relatable moments reflecting on their lives and shaping each other’s identities.

Knightley’s natural, crisp delivery transforms her character from being straight-out infuriating to endearing as she imparts grown-up words of wisdom to her young companion. Moretz’s performance is praiseworthy too — her heartfelt acting showcases her growth from child star to up-and-coming Hollywood teen actress.

However, Laggies is let down by mundane scenes of Megan and her adult friends, peppered throughout its runtime. Their conversations lack zest, making one wonder if they are really high school buddies or just strangers pooled together for a social event. These time-fillers lack vitality and bore audiences, who would have expected more on account of Knightley’s acting chops.

In a culture that places much emphasis on romantic relationships, it was certainly refreshing to watch a film that highlights the beauty of a platonic friendship. Unfortunately, Laggies slips back into Hollywood conventions –– it turns the spotlight back on love; much of the film focuses on Megan’s superficial feelings for her boyfriend and later, after an unexpected twist of events, Annika’s father.

Laggies was at most palatable: the plot was lacklustre while the pace was sluggish. Despite Moretz and Knightley’s great onscreen chemistry, the film fails to capture the hearts of the audience.