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What Happened to Monday - A Tale of Suspense and Surprise

Check out Joel's review:

Submitted by Bethany on Wed, 01/23/2019 - 07:53
Rating
4

Often, movies where one actor or actress plays multiple characters turn out, well... not so well. For an example of what I mean, check out the Netflix Christmas movie from last year The Princess Switch. (Or don't, it's pretty bad, and that's coming from someone who shamelessly loves cheesy Christmas movies.) So it is with a healthy dose of skepticism that I went into watching this movie - where one actress plays 7 sisters. 

The story takes place in a grim future, where overpopulation threatens the earth and genetically modified foods have caused births of multiples to be commonplace. Despite this, a one-child rule was put into place and enforced by the Child Allocation Bureau. All siblings must be turned into the CAB where they will be put into cryo-sleep until an as yet undetermined future when the world will be able to support more people. 

In defiance of this law, Willem Defoe's character raises his seven granddaughters to hide their secret from the world. But one day when they are 30 years old, Monday, the oldest sister, disappears. It is up to the other 6 to figure out what happened, where she is, and what they can do to save her - and themselves. 

The actress who plays the sisters, Noomi Rapace, did an excellent job. The movie fell a little bit into the trap that all movies with this kind of plot device do - each sister was a bit of a caricature in order to make sure they were all different and identifiable from one another. You had the sporty one, the promiscuous one, the smart one, the tech-savvy one, etc. It was a bit annoying but not a deal breaker. 

 The movie is pretty fast paced and gets extremely violent at times. There were multiple moments where I avoided looking at the screen due to the gore. Other than that I found the movie engaging and the whole premise to be an interesting thought experiment - what do we do when the earth cannot sustain our population growth? If you like futuristic movies and action-packed violence this one is for you!