"What Happened to Monday" is something I never thought I'd see...a Netflix-produced film that is absolutely brilliant--perhaps perfect. The fact that it's good isn't surprising. Netflix has made many wonderful television shows and moviesbut this one...wow it's amazing and not to be missed.

The story is set in the near future. The population on Earth has boomed,due, in part, to advances in medical science. But the problem with this is that with ten billion people and counting, there's a limit on how sustainable this will be. In response there is a radical new law thatfamilies will be limited to one child. And, if they catch any with more than one, the extra children are frozen...presumably to be revived at some date to be determined.

The story now switches to a woman giving birth at some secret location. There's a reason she doesn't have the child in the hospital...she's having a multiple birth...seven to be exact! Soon the girls' grandfather springs into action, hiding the girls and concocting a strange and very elaborate plan. The girls will live in a hidden room and when they are ready for school, they will pretend that they are one child after all, they're all identical! In order to do this, the girls, who he names after days of the week, wear a body camera and at the end of each day there is a debriefing so that the six other siblings can learn what transpired So, after Tuesday, the child, Tuesday, returns home to show them her day. And, the next day, Wednesday plays this girl. In essence, there are seven Karens sharing one life. This works out remarkably well but at a cost. Not only do the girls exist outside their hidden room only once a week, but when one loses a digit, the other six also must have a digit removed in order to hide the secret! Such is the complexity and difficulty of the plan...a plan that works for many years. But one day a problem occurs...Monday does not return home. And, this occurs only halfway into the story...the rest is almost non- stop action and suspense.

For a Netflix produced film, I was shocked at the casting of Willem Dafoe as the grandfather and Glenn Close as the woman in charge of this strange eugenics plan on Earth. It obviously cost serious money to get them. The film also looks great and is very ably directed by Tommy Wirkola. But the real standout here is the Swedish actress, Noomi Rapace, as the Karens. She is marvelous and managed to give a bit of a unique personality to each of the Karens. In many ways, this is reminiscent of Tatiana Maslany from "Orphan Black", another actress who masterfully plays many different identical characters each a bit different and unique.

To me, however, the big stars of this film are the writers, Max Botkin and Kerry Williamson. The story never has any lulls and again and again the movie manages to surprise the viewer....all of which work together to make a truly exciting and chilling morality tale. I see that this newly released film only has an IMDb rating of 6.9.which is inexplicable considering how good the film really is. Overall, this is a truly terrific movie..one that is much better than you'd expect to be streaming on Netflix. So good, in fact, that I can't even think of anything I didn't like about it...absolutely nothing!

WHAT HAPPENED TO MONDAY is a Netflix-produced science fiction thriller with the usual dystopian future premise. However, it also has a very interesting storyline which makes it feel fresh and unique. The narrative takes place in a world where an evil corporation (headed by Glenn Close on typically creepy form) enforces a one-child policy. The always-interesting Noomi Rapace plays seven identical siblings who hide out in an apartment and who each venture out on the day of the week they're named after. Inevitably they get exposed and action ensues. This kind of film works well because the action scenes compliment the story. It's a little rough around the edges at times but generally works well and keeps you guessing as to the outcome. The action is violent and fast paced and includes a lot of chasing around which I always find exciting, and Rapace does well to convince as seven individual characters rather than seven lookalikes of the same character. Occasionally cliched but always fast-paced, this is an engaging feather in Netflix's cap.

In the near future, the Child Allocation Bureau led by Nicolette Cayman (Glenn Close) implements a global one-child policy due to overpopulation and dwindling resources. Terrence Settman (Willem Dafoe) welcomes his identical septuplet granddaughters and decides to raise them in secret. He names them after each day of the week. Thirty years later, the girls go out on their day of the week sharing their common identity banker Karen Settman (Noomi Rapace). When Monday disappears, the girls find themselves in danger.

The 7 girls named for each day screams manufactured sci-fi. It's an artificial construction like the premise itself. I'm willing to go with it until the finger incident. The obvious solution is to keep that one girl inside or make her wear gloves. It's another artificial construction to make a scary point about their situation. The simplest movie construction is to allow each girl to have her own look which actually makes no sense. They risk discovery for the superficial need to have different hair styles. Once all that is accepted, this is a fine little action thriller premise. I would go with an evil Monday trying to kill her sisters but this plot is fine. Rapace has enough range to do 3 or 4 sisters but 7 is a little too much. There are some fun action and the story almost works. Its manufactured nature and a few plot conveniences do irk me.