Laggies from Lynn Shelton

May 16, 2015 Priscilla Ruffe

The film is nice and simple with a lot of rhythms and more mature than you could think. Unfortunately, the screenplay is nothing new.

You could easily believe that you will watch a story about girls who try to have fun all day long. The kind of story that quickly bore you from the beginning (which is quite awkward since you don’t see the face of the characters – you only hear their voices). Fortunately, it’s not the case here -relief sigh-

This film is about maturity, transitioning between youth and adulthood of Megan (Keira Knightley) which is more or less what I am currently living. She is the only one of her group of friend who is not married. She doesn’t have a stable job even though she has been dating the same guy for over ten years. This sole stability seems to be the only solution she found to be linked to her teenage years.

Simple is the first word that comes to your mind after the screening. This movie is simple with a fairly weak screenplay. This is a long line without real action. But this simplicity is not to be confused with a slow pace that would urge you to leave before the end of the film. On the contrary, the film has a lot of rhythms. The film lasts less than two hours and it goes fast, perhaps too fast, as if it was a metaphor of how Megan sees the last ten years of her life. She tries to stop those years by fleeing from her adult responsibilities and crashing at Annicka’s (Chloë Grace Moretz), a young 17 year-old-girl who lives with her father (Sam Rockwell).

I would have never bet on Keira Knightley for the part of the adult who doesn’t want to grow up (Anne Hathaway was chosen first but preferred her part in “Interstellar”)and I have to say that she met the challenge. It’s also thanking Chloë Moretz who perfectly interprets her sidekick.

Presented at the last year Sundance festival, “Laggies” is not as silly as you could imagine.