What Happened to Monday

Netflix | Release Date (Streaming): August 18, 2017

6.5	USER SCORE Generally favorable reviews based on 161 Ratings

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jrossreviewsOct 8, 2017

JordanRossReviews: WHAT HAPPENED TO MONDAY - 5.2/10
Rating: NR | Family Friendly: No. 18+ | How to Watch: Netflix
"Had a lot of potential and a few good moments, but fell on its face tripped by its own mistakes." With such a relevant topicJordanRossReviews: WHAT HAPPENED TO MONDAY - 5.2/10
Rating: NR | Family Friendly: No. 18+ | How to Watch: Netflix

"Had a lot of potential and a few good moments, but fell on its face tripped by its own mistakes."

With such a relevant topic as overpopulation the story of What Happened to Monday had my attention from the beginning. Disappointingly it slowly lost it from there. I really began to get distracted by questions which never seemed to get answered. The film starts with Terrence Settman (Willem Dafoe) – the grandfather – deciding to raise all seven septuplets in a futuristic world where it’s illegal to have siblings. The earth has undergone catastrophic events in the likes of global warming and overpopulation. In an effort to fix these issues the Child Allocation Bureau was created and ran to maintain a one child per family law.
I was immediately impressed by the performance of Noomi Rapace as The Settman Sibilings. Each sibling with her own personality and look played by the same actress cannot be easy to pull off. Noomi’s portrayal of each was believable, but there were times where the most noticeable differences between them was their wardrobe. I enjoyed seeing the personalities of each sister, but it was an inevitability that some would stand out more than others. The writers Max Botkin and Kerry Williamson had me wanting to ask if there was a real reason to have seven siblings other than naming them after the days of the week. Decisions like these that ignored obvious issues is what plagued this film the most.
The moments where the film shined the most were the scenes we saw the relationship between the seven girls and their grandfather Terrence. The lengths that he went to in order to ensure their safety and own self-preservation were admirable and touching. Willem Dafoe brought a strong performance when he could, but another mistake was the under-use of his character in the whole of the plot. However I did appreciate how the extremes of the families’ situation were never underplayed and really showed through the eyes of their grandfather’s role as their mentor. Where this film bombed and really couldn’t come back from was the plethora of plot holes. If it wasn’t for this review being a non-spoiler I could list ten plus moments that had me questioning, is this possible? From technology to just characters simply not noticing the obvious, it felt the writers were simply ignoring these issues and assuming the audience would never notice. The film’s runtime was two hours and three minutes and I would have gladly watched another ten or fifteen minutes of explanations to solve most of these issues. Overall I felt this film had a lot of potential and a few good moments, but fell on its face tripped by its own mistakes. Compared to Tommy Wirkola’s (Director) other works this was a step up, but clearly he has room to improve. The futuristic setting was believable, but the cinematography was nothing to call home about. Acting was good enough to keep you immersed, but the script had obvious issues that removed you from the world. In the end What Happened to Monday satisfied my sci-fi itch but left me scratching my head.… Expand

2 of 3 users found this helpful21

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JLuis_001Sep 9, 2017

A flamboyant film by Netflix that showed a very interesting subject, which it definitively holds, unfortunately it gets lost very soon, victim of its own inability to create a more cohesive and fast-paced narrative, because with a hundred andA flamboyant film by Netflix that showed a very interesting subject, which it definitively holds, unfortunately it gets lost very soon, victim of its own inability to create a more cohesive and fast-paced narrative, because with a hundred and twenty three minutes of length this movie has some extra thirty useless minutes where something more dynamic could had been achieved, especially because the film only has two action sequences when it could be done much more, especially if you take into account that the movie makes a terrible narrative mistake in one of them by stopping all the action in order to give space to another sequence that while necessary it completely messed up what was happening at the moment.

The work of Noomi Rapace is excellent playing seven characters, but although while she manages to give them its distinctive features comes a point in which none of the sisters seems different, I do not say that is her fault because the situations of the script compel her to it.
Also is sad to see Willem Dafoe and Glenn Close being so underappreciated and wasted but I think that for their careers it's already a plus to keep working.

I did not like the ending because practically when they explain the reason why everything happened, it feels somewhat artificial considering the selfishness of Monday who planned to sacrifice the lives of her six sisters for the two that would make her a mother.

Although the film never points to it because in the end it criminalizes it, it is very true the argument branch of the enormous over-population that is happening worldwide and nobody is doing anything to stop it.
It is true that the film was not obliged to deal with the subject but should not have abandoned it so easily.

It's not a bad movie, I think it will mostly entertain you, it will not be memorable but at least it was not a failure.… Expand

3 of 5 users found this helpful32

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Voodoo123Jan 15, 2018

Enjoyable if predictable dystopian sci-fi with septuplet identical siblings sharing a single identity as its central theme. Impressive cast deliver above average performances in this action heavy film.

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

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CinemaphileAug 30, 2017

A for execution and Noomi Rapace's acting, F minus for poor internal logic in support of an already weak premise and hackneyed dialogue/exposition. I'd normally say wait for Netflix, but as this is a Netflix Original, then I'd recommendA for execution and Noomi Rapace's acting, F minus for poor internal logic in support of an already weak premise and hackneyed dialogue/exposition. I'd normally say wait for Netflix, but as this is a Netflix Original, then I'd recommend watching the entire Netflix catalogue prior. It's a shame that a film with strong production values was green-lighted with such a weak script. This film aims to disappoint and succeeds.… Expand

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

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drambuie_Nov 15, 2017

I did not enjoy this film at all.The whole time i was thinking "what on earth am i still watching?". No reason to exist ,so many random pieces, absolutely no reason for so much violence (why everyone had to be killed and just trapped in someI did not enjoy this film at all.The whole time i was thinking "what on earth am i still watching?". No reason to exist ,so many random pieces, absolutely no reason for so much violence (why everyone had to be killed and just trapped in some scenes?) , so unbelievably supernatural abilities for all the sisters i couldnt relate at all. Some points go the plot twist and thats all.… Expand

1 of 3 users found this helpful12

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Arthur_TSUJan 8, 2018

Não tem muito oque se falar desse filme.

Alguns pontos dele são bons, como as revelações em momentos exatos, mas o resto é razoável ou ruim. Algo que realmente me incomodou nesse filme foi o death flag e algumas ocasiões muito forçadas.Não tem muito oque se falar desse filme.

Alguns pontos dele são bons, como as revelações em momentos exatos, mas o resto é razoável ou ruim. Algo que realmente me incomodou nesse filme foi o death flag e algumas ocasiões muito forçadas.

Ainda sim, eu recomendo, por isso levou meu 6.… Expand

1 of 3 users found this helpful12

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Meth-dudeMar 28, 2018

Despite some very blatant plot holes, the fact that none of the main characters were likeable and the fact that it had one of the worst endings I've seen recently, the movie is not a total disaster. The acting was quite good, the fightDespite some very blatant plot holes, the fact that none of the main characters were likeable and the fact that it had one of the worst endings I've seen recently, the movie is not a total disaster. The acting was quite good, the fight choreographies were well executed, the movie was entertaining and it was surprisingly violent at times. While the movie had a couple of good moments and an overall pretty interesting story, it still failed at being a "good" movie.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

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SquaredRenSep 7, 2017

I liked how this movie had no fear on being violent with lots of blood, and the main character had to make this awesome job to play 7 different persons, those things I admire but...everything else is bad. This movie once it starts you knowI liked how this movie had no fear on being violent with lots of blood, and the main character had to make this awesome job to play 7 different persons, those things I admire but...everything else is bad. This movie once it starts you know where is going, very predictable and that makes the job of this actress to just be forgetable, therefore, it's a turnoff. Overall, nothing much else to say, you will forget it.… Expand

0 of 3 users found this helpful03

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jordynSep 6, 2017

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. HUGE SPOILERS. NOTHING BUT SPOILERS. Okay so obviously the whole "overpopulation-dystopia with reduced childbirth" scenario is pretty cliche at this point, but for a second there it seemed like this could maybe go in some interesting directions. It could make a lot of the same points that we usually see (i.e. dont **** up the planet dumbasses) and also have an interesting twist of discussing family and identity, and what it would be like to have your only chance to interact with the outside world be a lie. That is a very interesting premise. However, the main thing that makes this dystopian thriller a bit different (i.e. the kids aren't just hidden in a closet, they each get to go out one day a week and the challenges that they face because of it) is barely addressed. Within the first ten minutes, Monday is gone and we have to go right into killing off sisters. I guess the ending wasn't really that bad, but it was hard to appreciate it since it basically felt random as to which sisters survived and basically the whole "message" (if there was one) really felt flat because nothing was really developed enough. It didn't make much of a larger ecological / political point because in the end, they just abolished the one-child policy and didn't really make any kind of effort to fix anything. Like these siblings are just gunna die of starvation, you guys didn't actually save the world. And it didn't make any kind of interesting points about family or individuality because the sisters didn't have enough time to really become distinct because they were dying so fast. When a few of them died, I didn't even really know which one they were. Anyway. It's not the worst film I've ever seen, but it really didn't do anything original and didn't have much of a point other than being a gore-fest.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

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Aghrr1Apr 24, 2020

This is just another boring movie. It has a potential but they ruined it :/ Such a shame .

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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tonykurebusuJul 6, 2023

As if I watched a videogame stream (Quantic Dream), where all the QTE events failed

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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