Arnold Schwarzenegger, Abilgail Breslin
“MAGGIE” My rating: C+
95 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13
Not only does “Maggie” offer a “serious” look at the zombie apocalypse, but it features Arnold Schwarzenegger in what may prove to be his best performance.
Makes me wish I liked the movie more.
Short on mayhem and long on angst, this debut feature from writer John Scott and director Henry Hobson stars Schwarzenegger as Wade, a Midwestern farmer who braves a terrible pestilence to drive to the big city (Kansas City, we’re told) and retrieve his teenage daughter Maggie (Abigail Breslin). She has contracted the mysterious disease and is being held in a special hospital ward.
The big brains call the bug the necroambulist virus — basically it turns human beings into zombies over the course of several weeks. What makes this so terrible is that those bitten know they are doomed, that little by little they will lose their individuality and become snarling, stumbling monsters.
Wade brings Maggie back to the farm he shares with his second wife, Caroline (Joely Richardson), and their two young children. For the wee ones’ safety they are sent off to live with a relative while Maggie deteriorates. When the disease reaches a certain stage — but while she still has her wits about her — emergency rules dictate that she will be taken by the local police to a camp where the infected will be destroyed.
Sounds grim…and it is.
Abigail Breslin…undergoing “the turn”
The usual zombie cliches — a high body count, humans besieged by hundreds of undead, grotesque makeup effects — are largely ignored in favor of tears and trembling. This is a film about everyday folk forced to face their own mortality.
On a purely logical level, “Maggie” has some issues. Why would the authorities allow the infected to return to their families? Isn’t that a recipe for disaster? And it makes no sense for Maggie to go off to spend the night around a campfire with her high school buddies, who are amazingly understanding about the whole zombie thing.
The performances from Schwarzenegger and Breslin are actually pretty good — low-keyed and sincere.
But there’s no getting around the fact that “Maggie” just isn’t much fun.
| Robert W. Butler
Butler's Cinema Scene 
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