[The above spoiler alert joke only really works for the UK title of this movie.]
Laggies (2014) (released in the United Kingdom as Say When) is an American romantic comedy film directed by Lynn Shelton, starring Keira Knightley, Chloë Grace Moretz, and Sam Rockwell.
"When!"
In the end, twenty-something, perpetual woman-child Keira Knightley ditches her clique of high-school friends, that includes her would-be fiancée, for middle-aged, divorced divorce lawyer, Sam Rockwell, father of high-school graduating, teenage, only-daughter, random acquaintance, Chloë Grace Moretz.
Unwilling to engage with adult responsibilities gradually being adopted by friends from high-school she finds increasingly hard to relate to, Knightley, horrified when her long-time boyfriend attempts to propose marriage during her best friend's wedding banquet, finds an excuse to excuse herself from proceedings, after discovering her ever-supportive father engaged in intimate relations with someone other than her mother, his wife.
Buttonholed on her way into a late-night convenience store, Knightley finds herself relating to high-school senior Moretz and her group of under-age friends, with whom she forms and instant bond, spending the rest of the night in their company, after agreeing to buy alcohol on their behalf.
Unperturbed by his earlier failure, Knightley's boyfriend persists with his proposal of marriage, which she accepts, after he, misconstruing her reticence as an aversion to elaborate celebrations, offers immediate secret elopement as the solution to her nerves.
But when her boyfriend then suggests they wait until after Knightley's friend's honeymoon departure, playing for time, Knightley proposes a further delay so that she can attend a personal growth seminar recommended by him, that she has long resisted.
However, she never makes it to the seminar, when Moretz, asking Knightley to impersonate her absent mother, enlists her help in placating a school guidance councillor who is concerned over Moretz lack of preparedness for her impending graduation.
Now doubly indebted to her, Moretz is persuaded to offer Knightley somewhere to stay, on the pretext of being between accommodations, but is discovered, on the first night, sleeping on Moretz's bedroom floor, by her father, Sam Rockwell, who questions her closely, before deciding to put her up in the spare room, for the night.
Unsure of her motives, Rockwell decides to work from home, the next day, in order to keep an eye on Knightley, whose playful antics with the family's pet tortoise, and sympathetic attitude towards Moretz gradually win him over.
The friendship between Knightley and his daughter is further cemented when Moretz, bunking off school, has Knightley accompany her on a clandestine trip to visit her estranged mother, a self-obsessed lingerie catalogue model, who ran out on Rockwell and her daughter when she realised she had little idea of how to be a good parent.
Aware of his daughter's growing attachment to Knightley, Rockwell steals her away from a sleepover Moretz is having with one of her friends, for shots at a nearby restaurant bar, just as it is closing.
Dis-inhibited by the alcohol, the pair engage in a passionate kiss on their way home, and end up secretly spending the night together, only for Moretz to spy them canoodling in the kitchen, the next morning.
Initially uncomfortable with the idea, Moretz eventually accepts that Knightley might be her father's best shot at happiness, following his marriage break-up, until she uncovers the truth behind Knightley's sojourn, during a trip with her friends to arrange formal-wear for their upcoming graduation dance.
The revelation leads to a chain reaction of heated exchanges between the group during the ride home, resulting in an accident which lands Knightley in jail, after she decides to take the fall for the young driver who was drunk at the wheel, and is herself discovered to be under the influence, having accepted a hair-of-the-dog hangover remedy from Rockwell, that morning.
Assigned his legal services, Knightley destroys any hope of a relationship with Rockwell, by confessing her impending nuptials, before he reveals she is to be discharged with a warning.
Returning to her boyfriend, Knightley is surprised when Moretz's sleepover friend shows up with the evening dress she bought and an invitation to the dance, saying that Moretz is missing her council.
Determined to go through with their secret elopement, after having come to terms with her father's momentary lapse and recognised her parents' commitment to work things out as a couple, it isn't until her boyfriend fails to resist involving their clique of friends in arrangements, that Knightley realises she has to break up with him in order to get away from them.
So after advising Moretz, at the dance, to take a chance on the guy she has so far been unwilling to commit herself to, Knightley sets about winning back Rockwell, which she does with a carton of wine, and a high-school style love note.
Once again Knightley impresses with her ability to secure leading roles that far exceed her acting talents. This is not the first time she has been mistaken by a casting director for some kind of female Hugh Grant, which is fantastic news for Grant, who is made to look very good in comparison.
Her awkwardness in the role is not helped by being out-acted by every other cast member, including the bit-players, (I was going to include the tortoise in that comparison, but realised that would be unfair... to the tortoise, lacking theatrical training, and only a wrangler to rely on for direction) none of whom are well served by a script that gives the impression of having been spit-balled together by a gaggle of the kind of women found endlessly discussing female issues on day-time television, or possibly their daughters, which is a great shame, because Rockwell and Moretz really shine, despite the stultifying presence of "Coco Mademoiselle".
In fact, I'd walk through hell in a gasoline suit to watch Rockwell and Moretz.
Unfortunately, that's exactly what Laggies requires.
If, like me, you're wondering what the movie's title means, neither Urban Dictionary, nor Lynn Shelton are much help on the matter. The most the movie's director will say is that it means something to the movie's screen-writer and her clique of friends from high-school. Hang on! Is it just me, or is that starting to sound familiar to anyone else?
Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laggies
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=laggy
Director Lynn Shelton talks about the meaning of the title of her film Laggies
