Maggie

Two normally separate fanbases are likely to converge with Maggie, and both might walk away disappointed.

This atmospheric low-budget drama certainly subverts expectations for both zombie aficionados and Arnold Schwarzenegger devotees but it’s more of a misguided curiosity piece that doesn’t offer much to get anybody else very excited.

Schwarzenegger plays Wade, a respected family man in a small Midwestern town whose daughter, Maggie (Abigail Breslin), is starting to show the effects of a recent zombie bite that renders her condition terminal.

Desperate to hold his family together, Wade is defiant when urged by the local authorities to put Maggie into a mass quarantine with other future members of the living dead. Instead, he opts to keep her at home as her health deteriorates, even though it might put Wade and his fearful second wife (Joely Richardson) at risk themselves.

The film takes itself too seriously, treating a zombie outbreak like a cancer diagnosis with its tearful goodbyes between Maggie and her friends and family. Perhaps the script at least deserves credit for taking a different approach to the genre, yet it’s difficult to generate the necessary emotional investment under the circumstances.

While lacking in context regarding the infestation, it also detours into a sappy romantic subplot that feels tacked-on. Maggie might have worked better as a short subject, where its tendency to wallow in sentimentality wouldn’t have been so glaring.

Still, rookie director Henry Hobson brings some visual flair to the material, using a washed-out color scheme to capture the desolation and despair of its post-apocalyptic landscape.

Schwarzenegger’s performance is effectively quiet and introspective, as if he’s hinting at a transition away from traditional action-hero roles at this point in his career (whether mainstream audiences would be accepting of such a change is sketchier, of course).

The film generally steers clear of violence and gore, which is unusual for both Schwarzenegger films and zombie films. In fact, there are very few zombie sequences at all — just some festering wounds and cloudy eyes that indicate their presence.

Neither funny nor scary, the result is more depressing than exciting, and by the end, it might be moviegoers who are out for blood.

Rated R, 95 minutes.