MAGGIE  3.0***

          ‘Maggie’ is a realistic and engaging film about a zombie/viral outbreak told through the loving relationship of a father and his infected daughter.

While most zombie movies have in common is an emphasis on the gory aspects of an outbreak, showing chases, swarms and battles that pit humans against a relentless zombie enemy with few weaknesses. Maggie takes a different approach to a zombie-like virus that gives it a sense of authenticity not often achieved in the zombie sub-genre.

 

In spite of Maggie’s (Abigail Breslin) best efforts to shield her family from her infection, her father, Wade, (Arnold Schwarzenegger), refuses to let his eldest daughter die amongst strangers. When retrieving her from the hospital, he’s warned of the symptoms and instructed on quarantine procedures. At first Maggie seems fine aside from the gnarly gash on her arm and darkness around her clouding eyes. But as the virus spreads, her body devolves into its more predatory being and her hunger for “meat”, i.e. human flesh, will become insatiable. At this point she must be killed.  

 

No time period or specific location is identified, giving the movie a generic quality of Anywhere, U.S.A.  Also, In spite of this terrible contagion, the world has not nosedived into chaos as is usually the case in zombie movies. In fact there is still an effective authority maintaining order and containment.  Though people exercise caution, life goes on. In addition the condition of the infected  is akin to other deadly  viruses and it somewhat parallels situations involving terminal illnesses except for the horrible final stage.

 

In the most reserved and vulnerable performance of his career,  Schwarzenegger digs deep to show the soul of a broken man, helpless against a virus that is taking away his most precious gift, his daughter . It's a moving and surprising display of emotion from the former governor of California  

  Abigail Breslin is a truly talented actress. In her performance you see the deterioration of not just her body, but all her hopes and dreams. Breslin  truly captures the  anguish and despair of a girl who knows she has no future, and probably even more so, the heartbreak and grief  she suffers from her  final interactions with her friends and  family, especially her dad. Breslin is remarkable.   

 

“Maggie” is a moving dark drama. But it is NOT a horror movie. It is, instead, a captivating story about horrible things that can happen.

 

Clark