"The visuals of the film are suitably drab and grey conveying the unrelenting misery of this world perfectly"

When you hear that there is a zombie film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger in the lead role, what sort of image do you have in your head? If you’re me you would imagine Arnold shirtless, surrounded by explosions, with a machine gun in one hand firing rounds off furiously at an attacking horde of zombies. Cast aside that thought for Maggie is something entirely different; being unlike any kind of film that Schwarzenegger has made before and shows a side to the Austrian Oak nobody thought existed.

The film takes place in an America that has barely survived a zombie apocalypse which has left many dead and society exhausted. Schwarzenegger stars as Wade a father looking to find his missing daughter; Maggie who had run away and found herself in trouble upon venturing into a nearby city. Following their reunion, Wade is informed that Maggie has been afflicted with the disease responsible for the un-dead uprising courtesy of a zombie bite and has a limited time before she ultimately turns into another flesh eating monster. Wade attempts to care for his ill daughter the best he can, all the while wrestling with the dilemma of what he will ultimately have to do when her time runs out.

Maggie is different from most films in the zombie apocalypse genre. For starters the film takes place after the apocalypse has already been and went, with society limping onwards in the aftermath amid shots of ruined streets and burning fields. There are no scenes of our leads valiantly battling zombie hordes in action set pieces, what action there is in the film is subdued and brief, for example a scene of Wade encountering a single zombie in an abandoned petrol station is over within a minute. This is a far cry from the near endless gunfire and gore of The Walking Dead.

The visuals of the film are suitably drab and grey conveying the unrelenting misery of this world perfectly. It’s perhaps appropriate that the film was shot in New Orleans which still looks battered and broken following the devastating Hurricane Katrina which ravaged the city over ten years ago, with the sight of boarded up and dilapidated houses being a prominent image in the film.

Maggie presents us with a very different kind of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Long typecast as a one line spewing, machine gun toting mass of muscle, here we see him for perhaps the first time as an actual human being in what is the most subdued performance of his career. He is believable as a loving father who is simply attempting to do what he can for his child in her final moments and it clearly pains him as she moves ever closer to her inevitable transformation. Schwarzenegger truly tries his best in the role and delivers a fine performance, even if in all honesty he is not suited to such heavy dramatic material, but he does what he can with his admittedly limited abilities.

The real star of the film is Abigail Breslin as the titular Maggie. While spending the majority of the runtime in various stages of decay (aided by truly excellent make-up), Breslin gives a moving performance as someone fighting a losing battle to retain her humanity while attempting to come to terms with her fate and the fears that accompany such a situation. Her scenes alongside Schwarzenegger are a particular highlight, in particular one sequence which has the two reminisce about her late mother and her father’s battered old pick-up truck, while nothing particularly special, the scene provides a welcome feeling of warmth and humour in an otherwise bleak story.

Overall Maggie is a mixed bag. As a zombie film it succeeds in providing something refreshing after decades of directors effectively making the same zombie film repeatedly. But the pace is at times painfully slow. Those expecting an action packed gore fest will find themselves bored by the lack of action and I can attest that the slow pace did leave me somewhat bored as the film reached its end.

However the films visuals are astounding and convey the depressing tone brilliantly and the lead performance from Breslin as the title character is truly excellent and is easily the best part of this overall decent if slightly dull film.

As for Schwarzenegger, while it is refreshing to see him attempt something different from his usual action hero fare, and I do hope he attempts more dramatic roles, I feel that Maggie is perhaps not the best film to begin his new career as a truly serious dramatic actor and hope that he has better luck with his next attempt.