Girls Only

Ever feel like you have spent far too much of your life wandering around and trying to please everyone else?

I would say that after my last Keira Knightly adventure with Mark Ruffalo and now this movie, I am just about ready to have her as my friend. It was so hard to like her after all that fawning over her looks in other movies. She is really a charming actress and made my day with this performance. Apparently she replaced Anne Hathaway at the last minute. It is hard to imagine Ms. Hathaway in the role because Keira Knightly owns it so completely. I usually find the performances of Brits who play Americans strangely flat, but Ms. Knightly is one good exception to the rule. She falls into her role and seems to use her outsider status as an asset which works within the premise of the movie.

Sam Rockwell is incredible. What is it about that man? He has a very sexy brain. If he were one tiny bit better looking his seductive capacity would be less mesmerizing, so thank heaven for small favors.

Have fun!

There is a winning quality to this romantic comedy about a girl in her 20s (Knightley) in a bit of a mid 20s crisis after being proposed to by her boyfriend. She befriends a teenage girl (Moretz) and her divorced father (Rockwell). It starts off a bit slow but then you realize gradually the characters are all quite likable even when they are doing something wrong. This understated treatment of the more serious moments makes it more effective especially the visit to the mother (Mol). Avoids melodrama which would have spoilt the tone of the movie.

Keira Knightley makes her 20s finding herself girl surprisingly sympathetic and identifiable. Throughout her mistakes you still root for her. Chloe Grace Moretz is a standout as always. She gives a sensitive performance and doesn't overact. Amidst all the recent movies a likable teenager character on film is kind of rare. Sam Rockwell plays the father quite charmingly.

Overall one the better indie rom coms of late and worth a watch.

This film tells the story of a woman who escapes from her life and finds companionship with a teenage girl, after her boyfriend proposes to her during her best friend's wedding.

"Laggies" shows Megan as a person who runs from the things she want in her life. She strikes up an unlikely friendship with a teenage girl, and they both help each other grow. Another subplot is a romantic comedy subplot between Megan and the lonely lawyer, which I think is more engaging than the main plot. Sam Rockwell is charming as a lonely lawyer, and he is a good match with Keira Knightley in this film. I would have liked to see more of this subplot, and I would not even mind if the story is changed to a romantic comedy between these two!

Keira Knightley's character was hard to like at times. It may be that she closely resembled my ex in how poorly she made decisions, never considering the effects her choices had on anyone else. But that's pretty real, I guess. And her character develops well over the course of the film. I think she finally gets it, but I would have a hard time ever trusting someone like her (again).

It's not that I don't like a mixed protagonist. It's just that I wanted to shake her at different moments, and yell, "What are you doing?! Are you even thinking at all?!" But one would probably think that of me, watching my life from the outside. It's convicting, considering that we're all mixed protagonists in our own lives.

Sam Rockwell is consistently supreme in his ability to deliver performances that produce audible laughter from me. I'll pretty much watch anything he does, and though sometimes the film is mediocre, he is always exceptional—I never regret the decision to watch.

If you're looking for some great Sam Rockwell movies, check out "The Way Way Back" and "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind". He's great in everything I've seen him in, though.

Laggies is all about growing up, with its main character unable to take life seriously. The film explores to several compelling points of moving on to adulthood. Then it takes to a quirkier turn where Megan tries to make another life with a younger crowd where she feels more accepted of who she is. This is meant to be a story about getting away from the comfort zone, the movie does bring a lot of acknowledgment of why this is supposed to be the right thing, but it resolves to a more comfortable type of ending which doesn't live up much to what it wants to say. Thankfully, most of it is undeniably delightful and clever, delivered by charming talents on screen. This isn't probably what Laggies is meant to be, but there is still a lot of reasons why you should like it, anyway.

The film started out in a compellingly tough state for the main character; having less fun with her old high school friends and dealing with other complicated issues. She's basically avoiding from those personal troubles of how life has changed and finding a way to completely run away from them. Once she meets her new set of younger friends, it leads to a build up of a much different purpose. The story carries Megan with heavy questions, but the movie doesn't seem to have the guts of being challenging, thus results to an easier solution with her problems. This is probably not a bad thing, but it could have gone a little deeper. But the sweetness didn't rob much of the value. The film's own charming world alone at least makes things memorable.

What totally benefits here is the cast. Keira Knightley just perfectly captures her character's teen-like personality without making it look inappropriately weird. Sam Rockwell's magnetic charisma just brings a lot of likable impact at every scene he is in. Chloë Grace Moretz does her usual thing and there's definitely nothing wrong with that. These talents just makes it work. The movie already handles its own humor cleverly without making each of them feel forced, unlike most comedies out there. Maybe letting these stars come around and talk into each other already makes for a worth of watch.

Laggies kind of drops its "growing up" intentions and instead tells something about being happy about your own decisions, or something like that. The message it brings in the end is definitely not the one that it once tried to show, maybe because the film decided that they wanted to go conventional to that point. And the movie seems to be alright with that, which is sort of a strange aspect. But the best way to see the movie is just letting the talents bring it to life in their small lighter moments, it's a far more entertaining movie if that's the focus. There are still things that could have made it much engaging, but there's already a good movie in here that would instantly appeal the audience.