As one of the most hyped releases of this year, the dystopian-style narrative of Netflix’s “What Happened to Monday?” is already competing with the likes of Emmy Award-winning “Black Mirror”.
The story begins in around 2043, where overpopulation has caused a dependency on GM crops and an obscene number of multiple births. In order to control the problem, the government imposes a one-child policy. Those who have more than one child will have to hand over all but the eldest to be sedated into a cryosleep until the population steadies.
When Karen Settman dies after giving birth to septuplets, it is her father Terrance (Willem Defoe) who becomes responsible for the girls. He decides to name them Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday (Noomi Rapace). Each day of the week, one siblings goes out into the real world under the identity of their mother, Karen, giving each other detailed accounts of their day so that they do not get detected by the government.
The concept of the film is intriguing as overpopulation is a contentious issue in modern times, heightened by the suspense of the family’s secret. Nobody can deny that Rapace’s performance was outstanding; every sister had their own unique mannerisms and personality and their interactions were seamless too. Although, some may argue that she wasn’t given much to work with as each sister had a somewhat stereotypical personality, such as ‘the rebel’ or ‘the geek’.
What surprised me about the film was how gory some particular scenes were, for example when Terrance eerily informs the sisters that one girl’s actions have consequences for them all. In this scene, there is a flashback of one of the sisters injuring herself while skateboarding and we see the top of her finger hanging off. Terrance then has no choice but to cut all six of the other girls’ off too.
Much of the movie is a cat-and-mouse chase between the girls and the government as they find out about the existence of the septuplets, which comes to light after Monday doesn’t return home from work and the sisters are forced to find out what happened that day.
There are also plenty of tense action scenes. Guns, knives, jumping over roofs – you name it and this film has it! However, while it means that us viewers get a handful of unexpected twists and turns to keep us engrossed, it does kind of deter away from the film’s sci-fi genre.
As the film goes on, you find yourself rooting for each of the sisters and feel connected to their personal journeys. Overall, I would recommend this film if you like action – although it’s certainly not for the faint hearted!
Edited by Niamh Perry
Sources: https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/19/16171966/what-happened-to-monday-review-netflix-noomi-rapace
http://variety.com/2017/film/reviews/what-happened-to-monday-review-1202516670/
Images: https://art-s.nflximg.net/5c6c4/579d2b7aa99ba52096f13c433e510a657de5c6c4.jpg