WARNING: SPOILER ALERT!

Despite a compelling performance by lead, Noomi Rapace, and a seemingly fascinating plot, sci-fi thriller What Happened to Monday? never emerges from its one-dimensional execution. The cat-and-mouse thriller aspect of this movie is actually quite fun, however, the backdrop of a depthless, repressive political regime is overdone and unsatisfactory. This movie might be an entertaining, nonsensical watch for a Friday night, but it isn’t necessarily the philosophical and intuitive action film that it is advertised as. 

Now, I must disclaim that this movie is rated TV-MA due to language and nudity which means that it is not suitable for minors under 17 years of age. What Happened to Monday is set in the near future where overpopulation has caused a worldwide crisis that results in a one-child policy enacted by the Child Allocation Bureau. Any additional siblings will be forced into cryosleep until an unspecified date. Because of this, when identical septuplets are born whose mother dies in childbirth, obviously, their grandfather raises them in secret. Each sister, named after the days of the week, trains to act as one individual who is named after their mother, Karen Settman. They are only permitted to leave the house on the day that corresponds to their name. Thirty years later, the sisters have kept up their ruse while forming their own separate personalities, but this isn’t enough to be able to differentiate between them throughout the movie. When Monday goes missing, Tuesday retraces her steps the next day, being detained by C.A.B agents in the process. She meets Nicolette Cayman, head of C.A.B. and candidate for parliament, who says she knows about the other sisters. Thus beginning a series of close calls and death scenes with Noomi Rapace sobbing over another Noomi Rapace. 

Watching this movie is thought-provoking in a way the writers didn’t intend since it leaves you wondering “wait… which sister is this?” Throughout the movie, and especially during fast-paced action sequences, I often found myself having to backtrack to figure out which sister was in the scene. Another common complaint about this movie is the length. With a run time of two hours and four minutes, the movie isn’t actually exceedingly long, but with the prolonged pauses of inaction and many unnecessary scenes, the movie seems to drag viewers along at points. Bob Brauer, who viewed the movie, stated, “it was long, but the action and the plot kept me entertained.” Yes, this movie did have a lot of action that made up for many of its faults; however, the final, most important action sequence was disjointed and underwhelming, jumping from one fight to another, causing the viewer to miss the grand impact of the scene. 

Don’t get me wrong, this movie is very enjoyable. The movie keeps you on the edge of your seat with its numerous plot twists and shocking moments. Not to mention a stand-out performance by Noomi Rapace, playing all seven sisters. Viewer, Aidan Trexler, explained, “it was good enough that I didn’t even know that seven different characters were played by the same person.” That just goes to show how excellent her acting was in this film, to be able to convince viewers that the seven sisters were all played by different actors. Her performance was so captivating that it neutralized the impotence of the plot holes and dead-end storylines. Overall, this movie is strikingly entertaining with many well-executed action sequences and a fantastic performance by Noomi Rapace, however, directors missed the mark on their planned vision for the film.