Arnold Schwarzenegger takes first dramatic role in ‘Maggie’

Action hero Arnold Schwarzenegger reveals his dramatic, tender side and sheds a few tears as a farmer struggling to care for his dying daughter in “Maggie,” an unconventional zombie film. The drama that premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on Thursday night spins a different take on the zombie genre, concentrating more on the father-daughter relationship than blood-soaked gore and cannibalism.

When I read the script I had tears coming down my eyes just reading it. It was so powerful, so well written.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, actor and former governor of California

Schwarzenegger plays Wade, father of the titular Maggie (Abigail Breslin), who learns the hard way that there are rules laid out about quarantines and how to deal with an infected loved one, as his daughter has already been bitten prior to the opening scene. In Business Insider, Brett Arnold writes “Maggie” chugs along at a snail’s pace and there is absolutely zero payoff for its immense amount of set-up. Everything is so bleak and brooding, which would be fine if there was some actual weight to it — instead it’s mostly impending doom and melancholic soliloquies.