Lynn Shelton’s Laggies focuses on the “saturn returns” period of a person’s life. The troublesome stage that people face around the age of 27 is often cited as a turning point during which they make big life changes. Or, in the case of Keira Knightley’s character – opt for a return to adolescence.
The dramedy, which nabs its title from those who “lag behind” (a polite way of calling someone a bit of a dosser), stars Knightley as Megan, a late twenty-something woman who can’t figure out what to do with her life after she bails on a proposing boyfriend. Ah, haven’t we all been there? Her dilemma disappears when she meets a teenager, Annika (played by Chloe Grace Moretz.) After the two become gal pals, Megan moves into Annika’s home and strikes up a liaison with her father (Sam Rockwell).
You may already have a good inkling of what’s in store after watching the trailer, but we’ve got a couple of new clips for you today that open up proceedings. The first tackles a brief moment when Megan’s crude humour becomes a point of social awkwardness. It’s a scene which just makes me love Knightley all the more. Rounding out the pair of videos is Rockwell’s quippy father reprimanding the two for sneaking in late. Based on the previews we’ve been granted thus far, Shelton’s latest looks to have been administered a massive energy boost compared to her last outing, Touchy Feely. While that film boasted a cracking cast, it failed to carry the zip of her 2012 cross-over hit, Your Sister’s Sister.
However it turns out, we haven’t got long to wait. Laggies opens October 24th in the U.S., and under the title Say When on November 7th in the UK.
Having spent her twenties comfortably inert, 28 year old Megan (Keira Knightley) reaches a crisis when she finds herself squarely in adulthood with no career prospects, no particular motivation to pursue any and no one to relate to, including her high school boyfriend (Mark Webber). When he proposes, Megan panics and given an opportunity to escape – at least temporarily – she hides out in the home of her new friend, 16-year-old Annika (Chloë Grace Moretz) and Annika’s world-weary single dad (Sam Rockwell).
Lynn Shelton, whose unique directorial voice created such astutely observed comedies as YOUR SISTER’S SISTER and HUMPDAY, crafts a warm, funny romantic journey of three people who find their lives intertwined in sudden, unexpected ways, as they try to make their way in the imperfect reality of modern day life.
