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#507 - Maggie
Henry Hobson, 2015
A man learns that his daughter has been infected with a slow-acting zombie virus and brings her home to care for her in her last days.
What I've seen of Arnold Schwarzenegger's post-Governator career generally hasn't been too impressive. The Last Stand was a fairly generic attempt at remaking High Noon that wouldn't have drawn my attention without his presence, Escape Plan had a decent high concept but didn't make the most of having him team up with long-time rival Sylvester Stallone, while Terminator Genisys hasn't felt particularly good in recollection. Amidst all these predictably action-oriented projects that tried to work around his advancing age, there came a little movie called Maggie. Here, Schwarzenegger goes completely against type as he plays a Midwestern family man who is searching for his teenage daughter (Abigail Breslin) in the wake of a zombie apocalypse. When he does find her, he learns that she's been bitten by a zombie and is infected. Rather than run the risk of her being forced into quarantine with other infectees, he chooses to spirit her back to the family homestead in the middle of rural America, which of course presents its own set of complications as he must figure out how to deal with her incurable condition.
While the idea of a Schwarzenegger zombie movie would imply that it would result in a fairly standard film where he would mow down hordes of the undead, here I'm grateful that this instead tries to be a more contemplative drama. The whole "infected family member" trope is one of the oldest tropes in zombie fiction yet this is the first instance I can think of where it formed the basis of an entire film more so than a singular dramatic device within the context of a larger narrative. This is possible because, unlike other zombie infections that range in duration from a matter of seconds to a couple of days, the zombie infectees in Maggie happen to turn very slowly over the course of what seems to be weeks (though of course it's all up to each individual person just how much time they themselves take). The extremely long duration of the infection means that the normally apocalyptic zombie uprising is more or less relegated to the background, but that's just as well since the film is supposed to be a small-scale story. This also results in the zombie virus being like a terminal illness, which does mean that the whole film's main conflict plays out like a metaphor for euthanasia (with a bit of virus paranoia thrown in for good measure). However, the metaphor does get a little muddled by the existence of "quarantine"; people are being encouraged to turn over infected loved ones to be quarantined before the infectees become full-fledged zombies, even though quarantine is heavily implied to be a horrible fate in and of itself. As a result, Schwarzenegger must try to decide how and when he must deal with Breslin's inevitable transformation into a zombie, while Breslin herself is forced to face up to not just her own mortality but also cope with the wasting disease that takes its toll on both her body and her soul. Both sides to this story make for simplistic but effective drama that is solid enough to sustain the film for 90 minutes.
This might be a bold claim to make, but I genuinely think that Maggie might be the best film Schwarzenegger's done since leaving office. He gets the chance to show some range by playing a decidedly ordinary man who may fight off the occasional zombie (and manage to not look awesome while doing it) but is mainly concerned with guaranteeing his family's well-being, frequently showing cracks in his typically stony countenance as his world crumbles around him. Breslin, meanwhile, manages to infuse her character with a very believable vulnerability that manifests itself in manners ranging from self-harm to a doomed romance with a fellow infectee, all the while losing more and more of her humanity. Other characters may be relatively flat in comparison but they don't distract from the core conflict at the heart of the film. There is some nice cinematography thrown in as well; though the film does occasionally lapse into cheap horror tactics that rely on disorienting visuals, it is done rarely and manages to serve some purpose when it appears (such as Breslin's flashbacks to her being infected). It does feel a little drawn out at times for such a short film, but it still manages to include some affecting character moments and keep the suspense over its main conflict going until the very last minute. It's rough, but if this review has piqued your interest at all then you might very well find something of worth in this film regardless of your attitude towards Schwarzenegger or zombie fiction.
Henry Hobson, 2015
A man learns that his daughter has been infected with a slow-acting zombie virus and brings her home to care for her in her last days.
What I've seen of Arnold Schwarzenegger's post-Governator career generally hasn't been too impressive. The Last Stand was a fairly generic attempt at remaking High Noon that wouldn't have drawn my attention without his presence, Escape Plan had a decent high concept but didn't make the most of having him team up with long-time rival Sylvester Stallone, while Terminator Genisys hasn't felt particularly good in recollection. Amidst all these predictably action-oriented projects that tried to work around his advancing age, there came a little movie called Maggie. Here, Schwarzenegger goes completely against type as he plays a Midwestern family man who is searching for his teenage daughter (Abigail Breslin) in the wake of a zombie apocalypse. When he does find her, he learns that she's been bitten by a zombie and is infected. Rather than run the risk of her being forced into quarantine with other infectees, he chooses to spirit her back to the family homestead in the middle of rural America, which of course presents its own set of complications as he must figure out how to deal with her incurable condition.
While the idea of a Schwarzenegger zombie movie would imply that it would result in a fairly standard film where he would mow down hordes of the undead, here I'm grateful that this instead tries to be a more contemplative drama. The whole "infected family member" trope is one of the oldest tropes in zombie fiction yet this is the first instance I can think of where it formed the basis of an entire film more so than a singular dramatic device within the context of a larger narrative. This is possible because, unlike other zombie infections that range in duration from a matter of seconds to a couple of days, the zombie infectees in Maggie happen to turn very slowly over the course of what seems to be weeks (though of course it's all up to each individual person just how much time they themselves take). The extremely long duration of the infection means that the normally apocalyptic zombie uprising is more or less relegated to the background, but that's just as well since the film is supposed to be a small-scale story. This also results in the zombie virus being like a terminal illness, which does mean that the whole film's main conflict plays out like a metaphor for euthanasia (with a bit of virus paranoia thrown in for good measure). However, the metaphor does get a little muddled by the existence of "quarantine"; people are being encouraged to turn over infected loved ones to be quarantined before the infectees become full-fledged zombies, even though quarantine is heavily implied to be a horrible fate in and of itself. As a result, Schwarzenegger must try to decide how and when he must deal with Breslin's inevitable transformation into a zombie, while Breslin herself is forced to face up to not just her own mortality but also cope with the wasting disease that takes its toll on both her body and her soul. Both sides to this story make for simplistic but effective drama that is solid enough to sustain the film for 90 minutes.
This might be a bold claim to make, but I genuinely think that Maggie might be the best film Schwarzenegger's done since leaving office. He gets the chance to show some range by playing a decidedly ordinary man who may fight off the occasional zombie (and manage to not look awesome while doing it) but is mainly concerned with guaranteeing his family's well-being, frequently showing cracks in his typically stony countenance as his world crumbles around him. Breslin, meanwhile, manages to infuse her character with a very believable vulnerability that manifests itself in manners ranging from self-harm to a doomed romance with a fellow infectee, all the while losing more and more of her humanity. Other characters may be relatively flat in comparison but they don't distract from the core conflict at the heart of the film. There is some nice cinematography thrown in as well; though the film does occasionally lapse into cheap horror tactics that rely on disorienting visuals, it is done rarely and manages to serve some purpose when it appears (such as Breslin's flashbacks to her being infected). It does feel a little drawn out at times for such a short film, but it still manages to include some affecting character moments and keep the suspense over its main conflict going until the very last minute. It's rough, but if this review has piqued your interest at all then you might very well find something of worth in this film regardless of your attitude towards Schwarzenegger or zombie fiction.