MAGGIE Rating: NN See listing.
Where to watch: iTunes
Arnold Schwarzenegger flexes more acting range than we’d expect, but it’s not quite enough to carry this drawn-out zombie melodrama. As Wade, a farmer in a post-apocalyptic Midwest, he looks rugged and weary, emoting plenty from his eyes but garbling intimate scenes whenever he opens his mouth – which is perhaps why his character has very little to say.
Wade’s daughter Maggie (Abigail Breslin) has been infected by a zombie virus, leaving the father eight weeks to spend with her before she turns and has to be put down.
It’s essentially a terminal illness drama, an admirable concept that seems less adventurous when you consider how many genres the walking dead have already strolled through lately, from comedy (Shaun Of The Dead) to romance (Warm Bodies). Perhaps a solemn tearjerker was inevitable.
The problem here is that the stakes are laid out from the get-go and the rest of the movie is a waiting game for a foregone conclusion. There are just enough tender moments for a solid short film. Newbie director Henry Hobson pads things out with redundantly pensive moments where Wade and Maggie linger in the fields, searching for answers in nature as if Terrence Malick took a bite out of them. 96 minutes.