Review of What Happened to Monday (2017) by Jordyn — 05 Sep 2017

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.