{"id":76815,"date":"2015-07-17T01:00:06","date_gmt":"2015-07-17T00:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/?p=76815"},"modified":"2015-06-15T20:22:18","modified_gmt":"2015-06-15T19:22:18","slug":"maggie-film-review-arnie-faces-the-zombie-apocalypse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/reviews\/maggie-film-review-arnie-faces-the-zombie-apocalypse\/","title":{"rendered":"Maggie film review: Arnie faces the zombie apocalypse"},"content":{"rendered":"

The pitch for Maggie<\/strong><\/em>, at its most basic, sounds like a very different film. \u2018Arnold Schwarzenegger zombie movie\u2019 conjures up images of a film along the lines of End Of Days<\/strong><\/em>, in which Arnie bellowed that the Prince Of Darkness was \u201ca fucking choirboy compared to me!\u201d<\/p>\n

Fans of the Austrian oak looking for that kind of thing should adjust their expectations. Maggie<\/strong><\/em> is an affecting slow burn that\u2019s called Maggie<\/strong><\/em> for a reason; it\u2019s all about her.<\/p>\n

Farmer Wade Vogel (Schwarzenegger) gets word that his teenage daughter Maggie (Abigail Breslin) has been infected by the illness that\u2019s spreading throughout the States. When he goes to collect her, he\u2019s told that he\u2019s got about a week to spend with her before the sickness will progress to the point that quarantine becomes necessary.<\/p>\n

Once you go into quarantine, you don\u2019t come back. As Wade grapples with what to do with his daughter, Maggie struggles to come to terms with what\u2019s happening to her.
\nBy treating the zombie virus as a terminal illness rather than a device for jump scares, Henry Hobson\u2019s directorial debut finds emotional resonance, as well as the creeping sense of dread, that we\u2019ve got used to not expecting from our living dead.<\/p>\n

After the first half hour or so, the film switches its focus from Wade to Maggie, as the evidence of her body\u2019s changes is all too obvious. The black bite wound on her arm is never going to heal, and the rot is spreading.<\/p>\n

Breslin has been pretty visible on the genre scene recently, but this feels like the first role in a while to really make the most of her talents. She channels the anger and frustration of the character while nailing the more dangerous changes.<\/p>\n

That danger is what keeps Maggie<\/strong><\/em> from becoming mawkish. As much as Wade doesn\u2019t want to admit it, he\u2019s living with a ticking time bomb that will have to be addressed. His wife (and Maggie\u2019s stepmother) Caroline (Joely Richardson) puts on a brave face, but is clearly frightened.<\/p>\n

The police regularly stop by to check in and remind Wade of his duties as a citizen, and even Maggie\u2019s friends are unable to stop themselves discussing the gruesome reality of the epidemic. John Scott 3\u2019s script does a very good job of bringing humanity to the undead, and the rare instances of Wade being forced into action are grim rather than thrilling.<\/p>\n

Wade\u2019s stoic determination to hold onto his daughter for as long as possible fits Schwarzenegger well. The character seems to have been written in the Clint Eastwood western vein; grizzled, unbending, but quietly warm, and Hobson directs his star to what\u2019s arguably his strongest performance.<\/p>\n

He doesn\u2019t always sell the dialogue, but those are the rare moments in which the Governator\u2019s persona slips through. It\u2019s a casting choice that could have derailed the film, sending sensitivity and relatability out of the window. Instead, it\u2019s part of Maggie<\/strong><\/em>\u2019s success story.<\/p>\n

There are a few stumbles on the way to Wade\u2019s final decision. Hobson and Scott hit some notes a little too hard, and a sequence with Maggie hanging out with her friends doesn\u2019t work as well as it should. The world the film creates is intriguing enough for us to want to know more about exactly how society is limping along, but the focus is sensibly kept on the father and daughter.<\/p>\n

There are times when Maggie<\/strong><\/em> should cut a little deeper or be a little bleaker, but this is an impressive, understated and moving take on the zombie-movie sub-genre.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arnold Schwarzenegger gives his most affecting performance to date in Maggie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":76816,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"MSN_Categories":"Uncategorized","MSN_Publish_Option":false,"MSN_Is_Local_News":false,"MSN_Is_AIAC_Included":"Empty","MSN_Location":"[]","MSN_Add_Feature_Img_On_Top_Of_Post":false,"MSN_Has_Custom_Author":false,"MSN_Custom_Author":"","MSN_Has_Custom_Canonical_Url":false,"MSN_Custom_Canonical_Url":""},"categories":[2615,8],"tags":[3271],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/maggie.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76815"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}