With the world projected to have 8.5 billion people by the end of the decade, I don’t think anybody can argue the fact that our planet has a massive population problem. The idea of restricting the number of children born to reduce humanity’s impact on the planet’s resources is not exactly new, China implemented a one-child policy for over three decades, but Matt Botkin’s script takes the concept and puts a dystopian spin on it in the 2017 film, What Happened To Monday.
In the not too distant future, overpopulation has caused the rapid depletion of the world’s resources putting humanity on the knife edge of distinction. In order to save the planet, political activist Nicolette Cayman (Glenn Close) introduces a strict global one-child policy that sees any siblings cryogenically frozen until the world has recovered to sustain the population.
Meanwhile, seven identical septuplets, named after the days of the week, circumvent the governmental decree by sharing a single identity – Karen Settman – and only venturing out into the world on their name day. In order to maintain consistency and avoid detection from the Child Allocation Bureau, they meet every evening and share every single detail about their day but when Monday doesn’t come home one evening their entire existence in jeopardised and they must work together to figure out what happened to Monday.
What Happened To Monday presents a dystopian future much in the same vein as The Hunger Games and Divergent, and as someone who enjoys both, this film was a great way to pass the weekend. The story, interspersed with some impressive action sequences, moves along at a great pace and although some of its plot twists are a little predictable, they still land with great effect. Given the strength of the action and the calibre of its cast, ultimately the films fails to reach its full potential and winds up falling a little short.
From Winslet’s Jeanine Matthews (Divergent) to Julianne Moore’s President Coin (Hunger Games), it seems as though cinema has real trouble fleshing out great female villains when it comes to dystopian futures, and unfortunately the same can be said for Glenn Close’s Nicolette Cayman. Perhaps its because we see very little of her in the film or maybe because such a drastic solution is not that far outside the realms of possibility but the character feels a little watered down and one-dimensional which is a shame seeing as Close isn’t exactly a stranger to portraying the villain.
I think it’s fair to say that the success of the film lives and dies by the film’s lead, Noomi Rapace. Anyone who has seen the film Close will already know that Rapace can handle her own when it comes to action but here she balances that action with the portrayal of not one, not two but all seven of the Settman sisters, each unique in their own way. Her performance is such that it does not detract from the viewing experience and you are able to fully immerse yourself into the story.
Although it doesn’t quite reach its full potential, overall What Happened To Monday is a solid sci-fi flick that is a great way to pass the time, no matter the day of the week.
