So I'm on a roll tonight -- or maybe a nice fresh package of rolls, considering what I'm about to review for you -- and thought I'd watch a 2017 movie on Netflix, What Happened to Monday? Let me tell you, those rolls were quite good.
The set-up of the movie is something we've seen or read a myriad of times -- the UK about 50 years in the future, struggling to limit an exploding population by decreeing a maximum of one child per family. And a grandfather of septuplets defies the decree (which would require turning over six of the babies to the state for cryogenic suspension of life) and raises the seven girls until they can more or less take care of themselves. We've seen something like that before, too.
But this is where What Happened to Monday really takes off. Monday (each girl is named for a day of the week) has been living and working as Karen Settman out in the world, and suddenly falls off the grid of contact she's maintained with her six sisters. They are holed up, with various individual talents, in an apartment with all kinds resources. The authorities soon come to investigate, armed to the teeth, and a large part of the movie is how the six sisters, each with their own prowess, fend off the attackers. Every scene, every interactions, has a surprising result, including who survives and who not.
More than that, the battles spill over into future London, where more unexpected interludes and life-and-death encounters await. Noomi Rapace does a bang-up job, often literally, playing the seven Settmans. So does Glenn Close as a kind of evil Margaret Thatcher, and William Dafoe as the grandfather who does what is necessary. It's rare that a movie packed with so much action and roller-coaster ridings can deliver so much satisfaction, but What Happened to Monday does just that.
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