Review: What Happened to Monday
Silly but oh-so-effective, the sci-fi thriller What Happened to Monday stars Noomi Rapace as seven sisters whose very existence goes against the law of the land.
It's sometime in the near future and overpopulation, depletion of resources and climate change has resulted in the institution of the one-child policy by the Child Allocation Bureau (C.A.B.), headed by Nicolette Cayman (Glenn Close). This means that any additional children born to any family will be taken away and placed in a cryogenically frozen state until such time as the world is in a better state. What Cayman willfully withholds from the population at large is that those cryogenically frozen will never ever wake for their bodies are incinerated in the supposed cryo-chamber.
Terrence (Willem Dafoe), however, has decided that he wants all seven of his granddaughters to live. Naming them for the seven days of the week, he raises them to each play the same person, Karen Settman, on their named day of the week. Warning them to never go out more than one at a time and to never reveal they are a sibling, he stresses that what happens to one of them affects all of them. Thus, when one loses part of a finger in an accident, the others must have part of their finger cut off in order to ensure the pretense is intact.
A couple of decades later, the thirtysomething sisters are still continuing the ruse, though the years and years of living in hiding have obviously taken their toll. Tired of being Karen Settman, most of the sisters wonder if it would be better to turn themselves in and be in cryo-sleep. All such thoughts are put aside, however, when Monday goes missing, Tuesday is captured by C.A.B. agents, and Cayman sends snipers to kill the remaining sisters before their identities threaten her candidacy for parliament. What ensues is a bloody, grisly, action-packed thrill ride that showcases Rapace in maximum kickass mode.
Indeed, one of the film's chief pleasures is Rapace herself, not only showing her versatility by portraying multiple characters, but engaging in throwdowns that are often more gruesome than her character's suturing scene in Prometheus. Director Tommy Wirkola stages propulsive action sequences that may, at their root, be ludicrous but are undeniably exhilarating and contain many a gasp-inducing moment. Wednesday's jump between buildings, which is punctuated by a bullet shot, is especially sensational.
Though many of the sisters are broadly sketched - Saturday is the party girl, Sunday is the believer, Friday the shy computer nerd - Rapace invests each character with depth and feeling, ensuring that they are all individuals in their own right rather than just vessels for different wigs and makeup. The little moment of vulnerability before Wednesday takes the running leap, the WTF-incredulity of Saturday, Thursday and Sunday as they meet Monday's lover (Marwan Kenzari), and Saturday experiencing intimacy for the first time (when she has to pretend to be Monday in order to garner information from her sister's lover) - these moments are as impressive as the scene where two of the sisters battle with one another.
What Happened to Monday
Directed by: Tommy Wirkola
Written by: Kerry Williamson, Max Botkin
Starring: Noomi Rapace, Marwan Kenzari, Willem Dafoe, Glenn Close, Christian Rubeck, Pål Sverre Hagen, Cassie Clare
