What Happened to Monday?–A Weekly Menace
The year is 2073,. Overpopulation and limited resources, especially food and fuel, have created a mandatory one-child policy called “The Child Allocation Act”. What Happened to Monday explores what such a world would look like with an autocrat as leader and mandatory enforcement with surveillance required for all citizens.
In the opening scene Terrence Settman (Willem Dafoe) is grieving watching his daughter die in giving birth to septuplets: seven identical baby girls (all of them portrayed by Noomi Rapace best known for “Girl with the Dragon Tattoo“). Terrence, now a grandfather, is determined to keep all seven babies in direct violation of the Child Allocation Act This requires a strict clandestine existence for their survival.
The Child Allocation Bureau, implemented by the fierce dictator, Nicolette Cayman (Glenn Close), enforces a brutal family-planning policy that demands all siblings will be terminated using technology euphemistically called cryosleep. Government propaganda seeks to convince us that when global environmental conditions improve, purportedly, the young babies and children will be brought back to consciousness. The seven sisters sidestep this law by assuming the identity of one person: Karen Settman (Noomi Rapace). The seven septuplets, all identifying as Karen, are named after days in the week.
Decades later, the sisters have all managed to escape government suspicion and surveillance. Each goes outside once a week with their common identity as a bank employee. To safeguard their identity, the grandfather debriefs them every evening by sharing the day’s events so that the next day’s Karen can replicate any incident or information that would otherwise betray their group identity. The sisters and their grandfather go to great lengths to develop a system of wigs and makeup to preserve their identical appearance as Karen Suttman.The other six days they are basically prisoners in their own apartment.
One day Monday does not come home. This raises alarms since Monday has always been prompt in coming home for the debriefing meeting. A nail-biting investigation into Cayman’s iniquitous regime follows, replete with betrayal, distrust, horrific infighting, and predation.
What Happened to Monday? is not without plot holes, particularly with regard to Monday’s backstory and motivations. But it is riveting to watch as a gritty, violent, and often menacing sci-fi thriller that will sustain the viewer’s interest. The focus on seven embodiments of a woman warrior and the ends to which an autocratic government will go to convince itself it is doing the right thing is riveting
Noomi Rapace is stunning to watch as she titrates the voice, physical mannerisms, and appearance of seven different “Karens”. Her performances are idiosyncratic, authentic enough for the audience to identify with each septuplet as a unique individual on screen. Dafoe and the rest of the supporting cast, including the child actors portraying Karen Settman in flashbacks, are outstanding.
Availability: Netflix