Movie Review: What Happened to Monday (2017)
Synopsis: Due to overpopulation, the planet has enacted and strictly enforces a one-child law that requires illegal siblings to be taken from their parents and placed in a cryogenic state. A group of septuplet sisters (all named after days of the week) have managed to avoid detection for 30 years by pretending to be the same woman and only leaving their apartment on the day that they are named after.
However, when the first-born septuplet, Monday, goes to work on Monday morning and doesn't return, they quickly learn their secret has been exposed and must fight for survival against a system that wants to exterminate all of them to avoid the embarrassment their deception could cause.
Who's in it? The movie stars Noomi Rapace, Glenn Close, Willem Dafoe, Marwan Kenzari and Christian Rubeck.
Review: I must confess, I don't watch too many "Netflix original" films, mostly because there haven't been that many that have really caught my eye. In fact, even though this one sounded halfway interesting when I came across it a couple days ago, I was still a bit reluctant to add it to my list.
My wife and I finally got around to watching this film last night and, after seeing it, I think I'm going to give the Netflix originals a little more consideration in the future.
One thing I really liked about this film is it wasn't that far-fetched. One-child laws have already been used in some countries and, if the world were to become overpopulated to the point drastic measures are needed, a world-wide law isn't completely unbelievable. And, the septuplets' (all played by Rapace) deception is a logical way of avoiding that law.
The mystery about what happened to Monday and who sold out the septuplets wasn't that hard to figure out. And, I kind of suspected the "processed" siblings weren't really being put in a cryogenic state. Despite that, the movie still managed to have some mysteries. This included the motivation for selling out the sisters and what the master plan really was.
The movie also had a lot more action in it than I was expecting. From the description, I figured the bulk of the suspense would be from them lying their way into (or out of) a situation and hoping not to be caught. But, since their secret was discovered relatively early, the movie is largely them trying to avoid being struck by bullets, leaping between buildings, etc.
One performance in this movie that really surprised me was Glenn Close as the main antagonist, Nicolette Cayman. A lot of times, you'll see a well-known star cast in a movie like this just for some name recognition in the credits and, in turn, they just typically phone in their performance. Close, however, played Cayman surprisingly well.
Rather than playing her as a straight-up bad guy, Close gave her character some real emotion that made her much more human. She never reached a point where she was likable. But, while her methods were questionable, I did feel as though Cayman was doing what she was doing for an honorable reason and seeing her deal with conflicting emotions as a result made her memorable.
My only real dislike with this movie is the one sex scene late in the film. I won't describe it as gratuitous because it did factor into the overall story. But, I thought it was a bit dragged out to the point it was reaching soft-core-porn levels. Sex scenes like that are a great way to create a distraction when the movie isn't very good. This film definitely doesn't fit into that category.
Final Opinion: It's an interesting science fiction thriller that proved to be much more entertaining than I was expecting it to be. I would definitely recommend taking the time to watch it.
My Grade: B
However, when the first-born septuplet, Monday, goes to work on Monday morning and doesn't return, they quickly learn their secret has been exposed and must fight for survival against a system that wants to exterminate all of them to avoid the embarrassment their deception could cause.
Who's in it? The movie stars Noomi Rapace, Glenn Close, Willem Dafoe, Marwan Kenzari and Christian Rubeck.
Review: I must confess, I don't watch too many "Netflix original" films, mostly because there haven't been that many that have really caught my eye. In fact, even though this one sounded halfway interesting when I came across it a couple days ago, I was still a bit reluctant to add it to my list.
My wife and I finally got around to watching this film last night and, after seeing it, I think I'm going to give the Netflix originals a little more consideration in the future.
One thing I really liked about this film is it wasn't that far-fetched. One-child laws have already been used in some countries and, if the world were to become overpopulated to the point drastic measures are needed, a world-wide law isn't completely unbelievable. And, the septuplets' (all played by Rapace) deception is a logical way of avoiding that law.
The mystery about what happened to Monday and who sold out the septuplets wasn't that hard to figure out. And, I kind of suspected the "processed" siblings weren't really being put in a cryogenic state. Despite that, the movie still managed to have some mysteries. This included the motivation for selling out the sisters and what the master plan really was.
The movie also had a lot more action in it than I was expecting. From the description, I figured the bulk of the suspense would be from them lying their way into (or out of) a situation and hoping not to be caught. But, since their secret was discovered relatively early, the movie is largely them trying to avoid being struck by bullets, leaping between buildings, etc.
One performance in this movie that really surprised me was Glenn Close as the main antagonist, Nicolette Cayman. A lot of times, you'll see a well-known star cast in a movie like this just for some name recognition in the credits and, in turn, they just typically phone in their performance. Close, however, played Cayman surprisingly well.
Rather than playing her as a straight-up bad guy, Close gave her character some real emotion that made her much more human. She never reached a point where she was likable. But, while her methods were questionable, I did feel as though Cayman was doing what she was doing for an honorable reason and seeing her deal with conflicting emotions as a result made her memorable.
My only real dislike with this movie is the one sex scene late in the film. I won't describe it as gratuitous because it did factor into the overall story. But, I thought it was a bit dragged out to the point it was reaching soft-core-porn levels. Sex scenes like that are a great way to create a distraction when the movie isn't very good. This film definitely doesn't fit into that category.
Final Opinion: It's an interesting science fiction thriller that proved to be much more entertaining than I was expecting it to be. I would definitely recommend taking the time to watch it.
My Grade: B
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