Laggies is a movie for those of us who feel like we’re stuck neutral while those around us move on in life.

Keira Knightley (Pride & Prejudice, Pirates of the Caribbean) plays Megan, a not-so-young adult held back by her lack of a vision for her future.

Megan has a graduate degree but little interest in making a career out of it. Enabled by her doting father (Jeff Garlin from The Goldbergs and Curb Your Enthusiasm), who gives her hourly work and lets her hang out at her parents’ home, she is an adult with no idea how to be a grown-up. She still socializes with the people she did in high school, including the good-looking but dweeby guy she’s dated since then. But she’s recently befriended 16-year-old Annika, played by Chloë Grace Moretz (Kick Ass, Hugo) and enjoys hanging out with Annika’s high-school crowd more than is appropriate.

Megan (Keira Knightley) applies makeup to Annika (Chloë Grace Moretz) for the “smoky eye” look.

Then Megan’s familiar little world is rocked, in short order, by:

1. a friend’s wedding;
2. another’s pregnancy;
3. her father cheating on her mother; and
4. a marriage proposal from her boyfriend.

Overwhelmed, she hides out at Annika’s home, which pulls her simultaneously into the adult orbit of Annika’s single dad, Craig, played by Sam Rockwell (The Way Way Back, Iron Man 2).

Megan already has earned Annika’s trust simply by being there for her when needed. The context comes later: Annika’s mother, Bethany (Gretchen Mol), abandoned Annika and Craig years earlier. The fact that Bethany is a successful lingerie model but messed-up human reflects one of the films ongoing themes, the gap between image and reality – how others perceive you vs. how you view yourself.

But more than simply being there, Megan begins to realize that her life experiences have, in fact, enabled her to behave like an adult. When she accompanies Annika to see Bethany for the first time in years, the estranged mom flees to the kitchen because she doesn’t know what to say. Megan goes to retrieve her and, when Bethany asks what Annika could possibly want from her at that point, is able to frame the answer as something manageable: Offer her a lemonade and ask a few questions about her life. (Annika wants to believe her mom cares about her on some level.)

From Craig, Megan learns that adults don’t have all the answers, even if they act like they do. A divorce lawyer, ironically, Craig lays out how a few choices, good and bad, landed him in the present – a single dad managing a teenage daughter he really loves. He didn’t plan his life any more than Megan has; he’s just doing the best he can with the hand he dealt himself. This message not only offers Megan some perspective but also enables her to understand and forgive her father.

Of course, we see where this is going. We also realize that the filmmakers have drawn Megan’s fiancé and lifelong friends as shallow caricatures while her father, Craig, Annika and Annika’s teenage friends are deeper and more complex.

Megan is the most likable character I’ve seen Knightley play since 2002’s Bend It Like Beckham. Freed from the corsets and strictures of period pieces, she is fun to watch as the impulsive, unfiltered slacker.

Moretz does a great job portraying Annika as an adolescent on the cusp of young-adulthood – mature in recognizing her dad’s adult challenges and virtues, yet lacking the perspective to connect with the high-school boy she likes. Teen actress Kaitlyn Dever (Justified, Short Term 12) stands out playing one of Annika’s friends, Misty, who provides exposition and comic relief at key moments.

Ultimately, Megan realizes that her fealty to her longtime friends – and the visions of the future they held in high school that they’re desperately trying to fulfill in the present – are the very things that have been holding her back.

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Stu Robinson practices writing, editing, media relations and social media through his business, Phoenix-based Lightbulb Communications. This review follows an Oct. 13, 2014, screening at the Scottsdale International Film Festival.

Tags: Chloë Grace Moretz, Gretchen Mol, Jeff Garlin, Kaitlyn Dever, Keira Knightley, Laggies, Sam Rockwell, Scottsdale International Film Festival