Arnold's 'Maggie' a zombie family drama
It's pretty obvious that "Maggie," an unusual zombie drama starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, is not your typical Hollywood blockbuster. The apocalyptic newscast that Schwarzenegger's character listens to as the film opens is not on broadcast television or even CNN, but National Public Radio.
As Schwarzenegger's Wade Vogel drives down a deserted highway in his beat-up pickup truck, he hears the measured, decidedly unhistrionic words of the radio anchor setting up the film. A mysterious virus has led to an outbreak of the walking dead (or, as the NPR host puts it, "necro-ambulists").
There are other differences between this film and most other zombie thrillers. The transformation from normal person to flesh-eating ghoul takes place not in seconds or minutes, but only after six to eight weeks.
This gives Wade, a taciturn farmer, a lot of time to wrestle with his decision about what to do with his teenage daughter Maggie (Abigail Breslin), who has recently been bitten, but so far shows no symptoms.
His choices, as articulated by the country doctor (Jodie Moore) who examines Maggie, are threefold: Send her to a government quarantine camp, where she will (quite literally) rot; inject her with a drug cocktail that leads to a slow, painful death; or "make it quick."
For those wondering what the latter option means, Wade is shown dispatching a couple of neighbors who have turned into zombies with a hatchet.
Messy, but effective.
Wade can't bring himself to pick either of the first two options. So he takes the advice of his wife (Joely Richardson), to enjoy the time they have with Maggie, even as he keeps his shotgun close at hand.
Though Wade does dispatch a handful of zombies. "Maggie" is more of a family drama than an action film.
If Schwarzenegger at first looks out of place in an indie art house film, he quickly settles nicely into the role of an introspective, tortured dad.
"Maggie" suggests that there may be an entirely new career ahead for the 67-year-old actor, who will soon age out of the action genre, if he hasn't already.
The film suffers a bit for its slowness. But once you get used to the fact that this is not "World War Z," it has its small pleasures, which are both cerebral and emotional.
As Maggie sits around with her teenage friends, one of them (Bryce Romero), who is also infected, expresses the agony that families go through in deciding when and how to say goodbye to a loved one.
"What would you do?" he asks. "What should my dad do to me?"
It's not the weightiest dilemma to build a movie around, but it's a darn good question.
“Maggie”
. . ½
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Abigail Breslin, Joley Richardson
Directed by: Henry Hobson
Other: A Lionsgate Film release. At the AMC River East 21, Chicago. Rated PG-13 for language, violence. 95 minutes