Hey, did you know that Arnold Schwarzenegger is an actor now? Yeah that’s right, Mr. “Get to the Choppa”, “Let off some steam Bennet”, “Ice to see you”, “Don’t drink and bake” is an actor now in the new indie zombie film Maggie.
Maggie follows the story of a Midwest farmer (with a thick Austrian accent) caring for his recently infected teenage daughter who has been swept up in the middle of a worldwide zombie epidemic. Being an indie film, instead of focusing on the infection at large we see the outbreak from the perspective of one small family on their farm, this ends up being the films greatest strength but also its biggest weakness. The film is a slow-burn but probably too slow, as the gory and tense moments are too few and far between to feel like genuine pay-offs.
The film is classified, and has been advertised, as a zombie movie and to be fair it has a few zombie movie elements but it has forgotten to do some of the key things that make a zombie movie a good zombie movie. Firstly, the rules about killing zombies is not entirely clear, you can destroy the brain or just break their neck apparently. Secondly, for a world infested with zombies, people don’t seem to be working all that hard at defending themselves or protecting their properties. And even though the world of the film is structured so that victims with the virus can stay at home until they turn, there doesn’t seem to be very much regulation or enforcement on this rule - I mean geez just look at what happens when flu season hits - it just doesn’t seem plausible.
However, it’s because of this set up that we get this sometimes good slow-burn drama leading towards what can only end in a messy, messy way. The performances are great, with Abigail Breslin bringing some real heartache to the role as a teenager struggling with the fact that she is dying, but also dealing with being an outcast in her own home and community. Her one supporter, whose love never waivers, is the surprise casting choice of 68 year old Arnold Schwarzenegger as her father, who really plays to his strengths here. He only has about 12 lines in the film but it’s just seeing such an aged and weathered icon looking broken, it’s a side of him I haven’t seen before and it does keep you engaged for the most part.
Now don’t get me wrong, I would have killed to see a zombie-movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.... back in 1993, and to his credit he does really well in this role and avoids falling into any of the normal “Arnie-isms” that you’d expect to see in one of his films. I can’t help but think that if he’d done a few more roles like this earlier in his career then maybe people would have been more excited to see him return to cinema after all those years in office.
Overall, Maggie is set-up to be a naval-gazing indie-drama about one man and his dying daughter that just happens to feature zombies. But it really falls short on maintaining your interest due to the long gaps between dramatic scenes. It does have a sweetly tense ending but feels a lot longer than its 95 minute running time - and not in a good way.
Maggie gets Two out Five Stars (or poetic metaphors for teenage venereal diseases)
No comments:
Post a Comment