Growing up can be tough. You can stay up as late as you want, do whatever you want, and not worry about getting old until you're actually old. The only part that sucks is when you realize you've gotta deal with this little thing called responsibility"¦ and more importantly, integrity.
Keira Knightley plays a young woman named Meg who doesn't have it all together. Despite overlong unemployment, her life comes crashing down when two big secrets come to light. And the effect of that one secret has caused her to avoid making a decision that's based on the second secret"”a secret that pushes us into a coming-of-age journey (that may or may not include Captain Jack Sparrow).
Laggies is packed with solid performances from Knightley, Moretz, and Rockwell, who turns in another affable performance. This is a small story that unfolds well. We see a main character come to a crossroads in her life and has to make some major decisions but isn't sure how. The movie logically handles the consequences of her actions that make each beat of the story enjoyable and relatable"”until the third act comes along.
Since the movie's plot is small and not overly ambitious, its plot has tendencies of predictability. While the movie's ending may not be the shocking, the characters' motives are. The movie's ultimate message is mixed: Do the right thing"¦ whatever "right" means to you. For example, in the film, one of the final scenes spells out this scenario: "Hey ladies, do you like a guy who's too chicken to ask you out because he's too busy getting physical with other hotter girls? That's cool. Just pursue the guy anyway! By showing initiative, he will definitely stop his passivity right away just so he can start being faithful with you." This is the fate for one of the major characters in the film, but I won't spoil much more.
For Knightley's character, her fate involves a major hypocrisy and contradiction to a lesson she should have learned from another character in a very similar situation. Instead of seeing a young adult find her identity and purpose in life, we see a young adult look more juvenile and confused as the story goes on. And that makes this story more tragic and not the "feel good movie of the year" that it thinks it is.
