Review of Maggie (2015) by Cheewai L — 31 May 2016

This movie was directed by Henry Hobson in his directorial debut and stars Abigail Breslin (Zombieland) and Arnold Schwarzenegger as the titular character and her father. In a zombie-infested world where people transform slowly over the course of a few weeks after becoming infected, this movie focuses on the two leads in the final days before Maggie's condition deteriorates to full-zombie.

I've never heard of the director before, so I did a bit of research; he has had a good career in production design for film and video games, and he directed the 84th Academy Awards Ceremony. I think he deserves props in his debut for maintaining a steady pace throughout this movie, but that pace was definitely as slow as the zombies.

This isn't an action-packed zombie thriller that people probably expected upon release, which is probably part of why it received such mixed reviews. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this movie! The score writer and makeup artist deserve a lot of credit, but the real story here is the actors.

Breslin as Maggie really sold me on how torn she was with her condition, constantly trying to maintain composure around her family while fighting with herself about the fact that she will be dead soon.

The emotions she shows are believable. Perhaps more impressive than Breslin's performance was Schwarzenegger's; I've never seen this guy, one of the world's biggest action stars of all-time, give such a pulled-back and gentle performance.

It really made me happy to see him pull it off, and I hope he continues down this dramatic path in the future. All-in-all, Maggie, while very slow-paced, is an emotional journey capped off by two knockout performances.

If you have the patience for it and know what you're getting yourself into ahead of time, check it out!