MAGGIE (2015)

Genre: Horror/Thriller
Director: Henry Hobson
Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Abigail Breslin, Joely Richardson, Laura Cayouette, J.D. Evermore, Amy Brassette, Wayne Pere, Mattie Liptak, Aiden Flowers, Taylor Ashley Murphy, Douglas M. Griffin
Runtime: 1 hr 35 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Disturbing Scenes)
Released By: Cathay-Keris Films
Official Website: http://www.maggiethefilm.com

Opening Day: 14 May 2015

Synopsis: By the time a necrotic viral pandemic spread cross-country to small town America and infected the film’s titular character, 16-year-old MAGGIE (ABIGAIL BRESLIN), authorities had established a protocol for patients infected with the deadly virus: they are removed from society and taken to special isolation wards to complete the agonizing and dangerous transformation into one of the walking dead. The authorities do not speak about what happens after that. Wade Vogel (ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER) is not ready to give up his daughter. After weeks of searching for Maggie when she runs away following her diagnosis, Wade brings his daughter back to her home and family – stepmother, Caroline (JOELY RICHARDSON), and her two children - M-- for whatever time may be left as the teenager begins an excruciatingly painful metamorphosis. Having lost Maggie’s mother years earlier, Wade is determined to hold on to his precious daughter as long as he can, refusing to surrender her to the local police who show up with orders to take her. As the disease progresses, Caroline decides to take their two younger children and move out, leaving Wade alone with Maggie to watch helplessly as she suffers.

Movie Review:

‘Maggie’ is a zombie drama, but you should probably know right from the start that it is no ‘The Walking Dead’. Indeed, those looking for a similarly gripping survival tale with a tight blend of character blend and heart-stopping action will most definitely be left disappointed. So will those hoping for Arnold Schwarzenegger to carry some ridiculously large machine gun and blow apart hordes of crazed flesh-eaters – the only gun that Schwarzenegger carries is a shotgun, and he doesn’t even fire it at any point in the entire film. Yes, ‘Maggie’ takes place in the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse all right, but at its heart, this is a rather unusual drama about a family coping with a terminal disease afflicting one of their own.

Not much background is offered about the viral epidemic that is apparently sweeping the nation; according to a newscaster from NPR at the start, the necro-ambulatory virus responsible for the epidemic may not have an antidote yet, but it is somewhat under control. Chief to this is the fact that the transformation from normal person to zombie takes place not in seconds or minutes but over the course of six to eight weeks, which gives the infected and their family members time to say proper goodbyes before the former are sent off to quarantine. Abigail Breslin plays the titular daughter to Schwarzenegger’s Midwest American farmer, who happens to be one of the infected that the latter takes home to look after during her metamorphosis.

Making his screenwriting debut, John Scott 3 keeps the focus squarely on the bond between father and daughter. Not only after Wade (Schwarzenegger) brings Maggie (Breslin) home, they run into two of their neighbours-turned-zombies whom Wade has no choice but to kill, if only because the mother refused to commit her husband and daughter to quarantine by the mandated timeline. That reality also underscores the options which their family doctor (Jodie Moore) presents to Wade: send her to a government quarantine facility; inject her with a drug cocktail which they administer at these facilities to trigger a slow and very painful death; or “make it quick”.

At first, Wade tries to pretend that everything is normal by going about his routines at the farm, but there is no doubt that Maggie’s condition is deteriorating. For that matter, Maggie does likewise as well, re-establishing contact with a group of close friends, including a boy named Trent (Bryce Romero) whom she is clearly in love with and who just happens to be even more advanced in the “turn” than she is. Yet, as her ghostly pallor turns greyer and the outline of her veins become more pronounced, Maggie’s eyes start to turn milky and she starts to smell food whenever people are close. Thus, slowly but surely, Wade is confronted with the inevitability of his daughter’s transformation and to make a choice about her fate.

If that doesn’t sound like a lot going on, you’re right. This is probably one of the leaner, if not the leanest, plotted movies we’ve seen in a while, which is also short for saying that there isn’t much happening. There isn’t also a lot being said – for what Scott’s script was worth, the dialogue is as sparse as it gets. The fact that both occur in the same movie is a pity. Though we get what it intends to do, there is not enough character or drama in this character drama, which makes for a very deliberately paced journey that feels twice as long as its supposedly brief 95-minute duration.

Thankfully, it scores better on both acting and direction. Trying on a very different role, Schwarzenegger successfully conveys his character’s sense of despair and grief as he watches helplessly at his daughter slipping further and further away from him. Like we said at the beginning, there are no heroics here, just a tortured father with no control of the circumstances around him. Breslin is equally good, if not better, doing much of the dramatic heavy-lifting by portraying her character’s physical change and concomitant emotional struggles during the course of the movie. The more she becomes less human, the more we sense how much she is trying to cling on to the vestiges of her humanity, and it is a finely balanced performance which is quite heartbreaking.

Thanks to their strong performances, ‘Maggie’ isn’t a total washout. In his feature debut, award-winning credit designer Henry Hobson creates a grim washed-out look to fit the solemn tone of the proceedings. Truth be told, he could have made his movie a little less bleak, to let back a bit more humanism that seems drained out as well, and perhaps even add in a few moments of levity to let his characters have some reprieve. It would be cynical for us to say that ‘Maggie’ seems lifeless most of the time, but we fully understand why some may think so. Still, for a Schwarzenegger movie as different as the ones we’re used to and for a different take on the zombie genre, this intimate two-hander of a father protecting his daughter from herself is something worthwhile to check out but only with the right patience. 

Movie Rating:

(A most uncharacteristic Schwarzenegger movie, this grim character study of a father protecting his soon-to-be-zombie daughter boasts good performances from the action icon and his co-star Abigail Breslin, but lacks enough dramatic heft to be truly compelling)

Review by Gabriel Chong