Seven Sisters [Original Title]
Watch What Happened to Monday? on Netflix
Written by: Max Botkin, Kerry Williamson
Directed by: Tommy Wirkola
Starring: Noomi Rapace, Marwan Kenzari, Willem Dafoe, Glenn Close
Rated: TV-MA
Plot
This sci-fi thriller stars Noomi Rapace and is set in a future with a one child per family policy. Rapace plays seven identical sisters that elude the Child Allocation Bureau.
Verdict
This is a complicated mystery movie, with a futuristic world and one actor playing seven roles. While that's unique, the story isn't as clear as it should be, though the movie does a good job of setting up questions with a few plot points that don't make sense only to reveal there is more to it towards the end. Even with that, many points aren't resolved. I wish the movie had played with the bond of sisters more. We never really get into the characters heads or the true emotional impact of the sisters' life. While the mystery is explained, it doesn't feel valid. This creates an intriguing what if scenario even if the payoff isn't all it could be.
It depends.
Review
Frequently I would question the movie. Why are all children frozen and not killed? What's the point of the check point guard? How did they know there were seven sisters? These questions are answered later, in an attempt to bolster the movie's plot, but there are so many more questions that can't be answered that muddy the movie.
The introduction does a great job of concisely telling us how the world is overpopulated and a universal population control was enacted, each family can only have one child. If more than one child is conceived, the younger child is generically frozen for the future when the population drops. At first it just seemed strange to freeze kids. Where do you store them? Is the movie hesitant to kill? That comes back later.
This is a rather benign method of population control when movies like Battle Royale (2000) went over the top to control population, pitting children against each other in a fight to the death.
Noomi Rapace plays seven identical sisters that live one public life as Karen. Individually they're named after the days of the week. Any time an actor plays multiple characters, it reminds me of Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove, an excellent movie. Rapace does a good job of jumping through the hoops, though she doesn't really have to invent seven characters as the group is quickly thinned. With costuming and he mannerisms, she did a good job.
We get a few scenes of them all as children and as adults. Willem Dafoe plays the grandfather, concealing the children and training them on how to avoid detection. In one of the flashbacks, one of the girls cuts her finger off. I knew immediately what was going to happen. They have to remain identical. This movie likes cutting fingers off.
Is there no place in the country where they could live? Surely there is an underground area, but maybe they just like pretending to fit in. It would seem like just one of them could live the life of Karen, but even as adults they switch off days, at least some of them do. If one of them stayed home it might create a mooch effect. Maybe that's why they all have to contribute.
We get into the crux of the story when Monday disappears. The rest of the days have a lot of access to records as they try to track her. This is a technologically advanced world where everyone has an all in one bracelet that is your identity and phone.
A second sister goes into the world to figure out what happened. The CAB runs rough shod just murdering people, it seems a bit questionable. There is a lot of people tracking, and we get a fight that includes a pot of boiling water and an iron. That just seems a bit cliche.
There are enough twists and turns to keep you guessing as we slowly get more facts. The overarching story is kind of flimsy. How much could one sister do only out of the house one day a week? I can kind of get it, but the movie does a poor job of making her sympathetic. The CAB must keep the seven sisters' existence classified, as just one family subverting the system undermines all of it and could somehow shut it down. I don't get it.
The twist of the freezing kids part makes sense, but how do more people not know? It didn't seem top secret. You know the nurses "freezing" the kids goes home and tells her friends what's really happening. Many aspects begin to suffer if you think about it too much. The main arc just isn't that compelling, because we never see enough to really care. The movie throws a cheesy plot point at a character of which we see very little and expects that to be sufficient. It isn't. For everything I like about this movie, there's an equal amount I don't like.
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