Movie Info
Movie Name: Maggie
Studio: Grindstone Entertainment Group
Genre(s): Horror/Drama
Release Date(s): April 22, 2015 (Tribeca Film Festival)/May 8, 2015 (US)
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Zombie Girl…but not Maggie
A zombie plague has swept the planet. Wade Vogel (Arnold Schwarzenegger) learns his oldest child Maggie (Abigail Breslin) has been infected and has a few weeks until she turns. Taking Maggie home, Wade and Maggie’s stepmother Caroline (Joely Richardson) try to deal with what is going to happen. Maggie is getting worse, and the time for Wade to make a decision is getting closer.
Directed by Henry Hobson, Maggie is a zombie drama. The movie received a small theatrical release and received mixed reviews.
Maggie is a different zombie movie. Unlike zombie movies where the zombies turn into mindless creatures after being bitten or zombie movies where dangerous zombies run around, Maggie is actually more of a drama. The change in Maggie takes time and instead of being a movie about flesh eaters, it is more about dying from a terminal disease.
“Honey, I know you ate a fox…but what did the fox say?”
This drama-zombie movie idea is both what makes Maggie unique but also hurts it. The pacing is really slow and if you went in expecting to get a zombie movie, you didn’t really get one. The ideas brought up by the pacing are intriguing, but it feels like the execution could have been reworked and better. It would have been interesting if it was more focused on this idea of facing death both for Wade and Maggie.
Arnold Schwarzenegger was an odd choice for the movie, but he does a surprisingly good job in the film. There aren’t snappy punch lines and using his muscle won’t fix anything. Breslin also holds her own as the infected sister, but Joely’s turn as stepmother is also nice since she essentially raised Breslin’s character but doesn’t feel like it is her place to make decisions.
Mmmmmm…bacon
Maggie also looks pretty good. The pacing might not work with the storytelling, but it does work with the visuals. Maggie is surprisingly bright and warm despite the darkness of the story. It seems to deal with the idea of life as death approaches.
Maggie feels a bit like an experimental film, but the experiment doesn’t quite pay off. I like aspects of the movie, but the slow-burn nature of the script doesn’t work all the time. The acting and the visuals are very good, but unfortunately, the high concept nature of the story never feels like it fully developed…something which is a shame more than anything.
