Maggie.

Review #1572: Maggie.

Cast:

Arnold Schwarzenegger (Wade Vogel), Abigail Breslin (Maggie Vogel), Joely Richardson (Caroline Vogel), Douglas M. Griffin (Sheriff Ray Pierce), J. D. Evermore (Holt), Rachel Whitman Groves (Bonnie), Jodie Moore (Dr. Vern Kaplan), Bryce Romero (Trent), and Raeden Greer (Allie) Directed by Henry Hobson.

Review:

“When I read it, I knew I had to do it. It is more vulnerable than any role I have played, more real, more emotional. You’re used to seeing me play the ubermensch, the action hero bullets can’t seem to hit. In Maggie, I am the everyman … dealing with the most basic concerns – protecting his family.”

When you have been the favorite in terms of delivering entertainment in action or comedy for so long, one wonders what to expect from a turn to drama from someone like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Perhaps he hasn't been the idea of a great actor, but he certainly found a way from bodybuilding to acting that has made him a memorable presence in the action film genre for numerous decades. Even when winning multiple times with bodybuilding contests like Mr. Olympia, he wanted to act. He made his debut in Hercules in New York (1970), but it was the documentary Pumping Iron (1977) and Conan the Barbarian (1982) that ultimately helped him on his way to recognition as at least a man worthy of gritting it out each time. There is a reason he has found himself as one of the most prominent features of action cinema and Movie Night as a whole, and it is because of easy it can be to like seeing him on screen. Now, years after having put acting aside to serve as Governor of California, here he is in a different kind of genre for once - drama, with a film fittingly released the same year he starred in trying to hone back the action past with Terminator Genisys (2015, which is definitely of a different quality). This is the first feature film for Hobson, who certainly had his own interesting way to filmmaking. He was a graduate of Royal College of Art, and he soon honed his craft (a designer for title and credit sequences for films and awards shows. The writer, named John Scott 3 (no, not a typo), was an engineer. The script had attracted attention, but it was the storyboards that Hobson created to help develop his thoughts behind each scene that helped in convincing Schwarzenegger to express interest in the feature, which he would also help produce.

So here we are, watching a film about a man having to deal with watching his daughter suffer through sickness that cannot be cured and will have to make a decision on exactly what to do with her before she ultimately dies. It just so happens that a tale of parental agony is told through the layers of a zombie film, one that tries to bank on its performances rather than through machinations of action. It is a competently average film, buoyed by Schwarzengger and Breslin, one that rides hard on the heft they can lend in drama that smooth over most of its problems within pacing alongside its inevitability factor. It goes with a touch of quiet sullen passion that rewards those who like drawn-out drama while perhaps not fitting the interest for those wanting further in horror. In other words, if it weren't for these two actors at the helm, this might not have turned out the way that it does. After all, this film had just a limited release (my least favorite kind of release) by Lionsgate, and it almost seems suited for a short play with how it utilizes a limited setting and characters more than anything, but here we are. It makes a decent experience at 95 minutes mainly because it doesn't threaten to go longer than it should, particularly when it comes to getting around to effects usage (cheap but serviceable). Schwarzenegger does just alright with what he is offered here - no big posturing, no winks aside, just a role with some quiet agony that he reaches out for with useful effectiveness for anguish. Breslin plays a worthy title character performance, moving along with her own inner and outer struggle as someone watching themselves decay that makes sobering moments between the two of them have some well-drawn effect, as one could expect for a movie that relies on building itself on these two with the inevitable. Richardson and Griffin show up in parts, and each are okay, although really it is those smaller moments involving tragedy that mean most, such as a bonfire between healthy and infected friends, or a friendly doctor advising between quarantine or a tougher option in doing what needs to be done themselves. On the whole, this should be a better film when it comes to building drama (its ending of choice will either reach you in poignancy or leave one cold), but I found it just tender enough to seem worthwhile enough for a watch. It isn't the best feature for either Schwarzenegger or Breslin, but it serves as an interesting curiosity in each of their history, and in some ways that might be more than enough to recommend it.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.