What Happened to Monday (2017)

Directed by Tommy Wirkola. Starring Noomi Rapace, Marwan Kenzari, Willem Dafoe, Glenn Close, Christian Rubeck, Pål Sverre Hagen, Nadiv Molcho. [TV-MA]

An overpopulation crisis leads to the implementation of a strictly-enforced one-child policy, and so in order to protect the septuplet grandchildren born from his deceased daughter, grandpa Dafoe names them each after a day of the week and instructs them that they must live their “outside life” as one single person, and can only leave home on their designated day to keep the secret safe. But when Monday doesn’t come home one day, the other sisters find themselves plunged in a perilous struggle against traitors and merciless government agents that want to see them destroyed. Familiar dystopian setting/circumstances given an intriguing premise hook, but too often the ideas and mysteries are shouldered off the screen to make way for violent action scenes and plot holes big enough for all seven siblings to squeeze through. Instead of building to a shattering conclusion, interest starts to wane once the pieces finally fall into place. Rapace is a compelling presence playing each of the sisters, though the characterizations that separate them mostly boil down to minor physical differences (one dyes her hair blonde, one is a mousy tech whiz, etc.). The filmmakers’ willingness to be ruthless when it comes to killing off the leads is bold but also frustrating—emotional stakes can’t tolerate such cruelty again and again, after all. The most effective (and squirmy) scene involves Dafoe, his granddaughters, a skateboard, and a kitchen cleaver. Robert Wagner cameos.

67/100