What Happened to Monday Review: Another Waste of Rapace’s Talents

What Happened to Monday (aka Seven Sisters) tackles overpopulation to present its own take on the-planet-earth-is-doomed-sci-fi, with mediocre results.

The movie does have an interesting premise. Seven identical sisters take turns in assuming one identity, each going out depending on the day of the week they’re named after. Noomi Rapace does well enough that you don’t mind having 7 of her instead of 1.

The rote gunfights here is nothing to talk about, but the movie has gory violence to keep the thrill-seeking audiences entertained. If you want to see Noomi fight and die in different ways, then this movie has plenty of that for you.

However, these elements are intermittently entertaining. The movie is ultimately weighed down by a story that’s too contrived to suspend disbelief yet takes itself too seriously, follows a cliched plot, and is filled with cardboard characters.

It has relevant ideas but doesn’t have its own compelling vision of a repressive Dystopian regime. Its concept of overpopulation goes as far as shooting scenes with a bunch of extras to present overcrowded streets.

The movie’s central logic revolves around an entire world that has forgotten about contraception. Instead, it adopts a one-child policy. Yet in a world with limited resources and draconian measures of population control, it’s easy to commit multiple identity fraud.

It doesn’t help that contrivances continue to pile up along the way, leading to a predictable plot with big holes. The movie marches to the formulaic beat of an ambitious villain covertly getting rid of an obstacle on her way to a position of greater power. 

The Settman siblings are up against a two-bit villain played by an underutilized Glenn Close. The rest of the characters are forgettable, with an awkwardly injected sex scene. Rapace does what she can to inject emotional depth into all versions of her but they’re too one-dimensional (the nerd, the rebel, the party girl etc.) that you’ll eventually lose track which weekday is on screen.

The movie ends with the typical big reveal where the protagonist hijacks an event and shows everyone the truth. 

If the script capitalized on the talent of its lead actress rather than stick her into a B-movie plot, What Happened to Monday could’ve have been an intriguing sci-fi about birth control and female agency. There’s something to be said about how a man’s scheme to protect his granddaughters end up as repressive as the world they’re fighting against. Sadly it doesn’t have the creativity nor smarts of Orphan Black.

What Happened to Monday likes to believe that it is smart with a grand statement about mankind’s future. In reality, it’s a dumb sci-fi thriller that plays it safe, wasting an intriguing premise and a talented cast.