Noomi Rapace stars in “What Happened To Monday”, a Netflix original movie set in a dystopian future where over-population threatens the continued existence of the human race.
The effects of global over-population push the human race to the brink of starvation. Western civilization has collapsed but Britain soldiers on. In a final attempt to save humanity through bureaucracy, a strict one child per family law is enacted. The Child Allocation Bureau is formed to enforce this law by placing illegal siblings in cryogenic storage … until such time as the world has a solution to the effects of overpopulation.
What Happened to Monday?
Noomi Rapace plays the Settman sisters, a set of identical septuplets (seven offspring) who attempt to evade the agents of a draconian system. Each of the seven siblings is named for a day of the week: Monday, Tuesday, and so on. Each is allowed to venture into the outside world on the day of the week that corresponds to their name.
The seven sisters collectively assume the identity of a single woman, Karen Settman, and attempt to maintain the secret of their existence. For thirty tears the Settman sisters live as their their carefully constructed alter-ego until one day Monday doesn’t come home leaving the other six sisters to wonder: What Happened to Monday?
Is it worth watching?
Is this movie worth a watch? Absolutely. Population control may not be the most popular subject for a dystopian science-fiction movie, it certainly is a plausible one. One child laws are a reality in China. People there went to great lengths to hide the birth of additional children. What Happened to Monday has some great action sequences and just enough humor. Noomi rapace is one of my favorites and she certainly doesn’t disappoint here. A nice touch is that the near-future technology in the movie isn’t over the top.
There are a few Negatives but nothing that makes the movie unwatchable. My biggest complaint here are the rather obvious similarities between this and other titles. Defining the the disparate personalities of the Settman sisters by wardrobe and hairstyle reminded me a lot of Orphan Black.
While the premise of “What Happened to Monday” is almost the polar opposite to that of “Children of Men”, The two films make for an interesting night of what I would describe as fertility motivated science fiction movie watching. Maybe if there weren’t both set in great Britain they wouldn’t seem so similar.
Netflix continues to deliver a truly amazing variety of original titles. Thankfully, a healthy number of those have a decidedly science fiction flavor.