Film Review: Schwarzenegger plays it straight in ‘Maggie’
Even those who dislike Arnold Schwarzenegger’s films have to concede that his career has defied expectations time after time. No one thought that a massive bodybuilder could become an action movie star; that the action movie star could effortlessly switch to comedies; or that the comedy-and-action star could become governor of California. In the early stages of his career, even fewer would have predicted he’d marry a Kennedy, but that was a surprise of a different kind.
Since the end of his eight-year gubernatorial hiatus from movies, his box-office mojo hasn’t returned. Not counting cameos or the “Expendables” series (where he’s at most a supporting player), none of his star vehicles — “The Last Stand,” “Escape Plan,” and “Sabotage” — have clicked.
It’s unlikely... well, more like impossible... that his new film, “Maggie,” will gross “Terminator” numbers (or even “End of Days” numbers). In fact, in Los Angeles County, the film is opening only at the Burbank 8 and a few other theaters; and it arrives on Video on Demand the same day. Yet it may well turn out to be a savvy career move, particularly for a guy in his late 60s.
That’s because — even though “Maggie” is a genre movie — Arnold appears as neither an action nor a comedy star. His character, a farmer named Wade Vogel, is in fact a straight dramatic role, and audiences won’t be laughing either with Arnold or at him.
Director Henry Hobson and screenwriter John Scott 3 pack the opening scenes with exposition, in the form of a telephone message and an NPR news broadcast. In roughly three minutes, we learn that the planet is gripped by a pandemic of the “necroambulism virus” and that Wade’s teenage daughter Maggie (Abigail Breslin) has contracted it. Infection is universally fatal; the victims start to rot, turn feral, and develop a crazed hunger for human meat.
All of which means that this is, at heart, a zombie film, even though that word is never used. Couching the zombie phenomenon in medical terms, rather than supernatural, is nothing new; but the rules here are different than in most such movies. The conversion from person to mindless flesh-eater is usually instant or close to it. But, in “Maggie,” the “turn” (as it’s called) takes four to eight weeks — plenty of time to bite and infect your family and friends.
Not wanting to endanger her family, Maggie has run away from home and finds herself in a grim quarantine facility. Wade is determined to spend as much time with her as possible, so he pulls strings to get her released.
As soon as they get back to the farm, Caroline (Joely Richardson), Maggie’s stepmother, sends Maggie’s two half-siblings to a safe haven; and she herself justifiably feels threatened. A few of Maggie’s friends — one of whom is also infected — insist on partying with her, but mostly she keeps to herself, with only Dad as company.
And Dad, naturally, tries to make the environment as close to normal as possible, i.e., not very close. He also has to witness his daughter’s deterioration — not merely grueling in and of itself — but a constant reminder that at some point he’ll have to put her down like a rabid dog.
The filmmakers minimize most of what we expect from zombie films. There are several suspenseful scenes, but the anxiety is less frequently fear over imminent zombie attacks than it is over authorities’ attempts to take Maggie back to quarantine. There is only one shock moment early on in which zombies pop out at us.
Breslin — best remembered as the central girl in “Little Miss Sunshine” — does much of the heavy emoting and delivers throughout. Arnold’s character is an uncomplaining stoic, so much of his acting is deliberately designed to be stiff on the surface with the emotions bubbling underneath.
The one downside to the film is that the tone is, by necessity, way downbeat. Cinematographer Lukas Ettlin provides an appropriately burnished look, which is also appropriately glum. The end doesn’t give us a lot of relief from the tone, either visually or dramatically.
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ANDY KLEIN is the film critic for Marquee. He can also be heard on “FilmWeek” on KPCC-FM (89.3).