Noomi Rapace is a Swedish actress who achieved international success with her portrayal of Lisbeth Salander in the Swedish film adaptations of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, which was followed by The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest. Rapace has become an acknowledged actor in American movies like Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, Prometheus, Bright, and more recently, the seven lead roles in 2017’s What Happened to Monday, which might possibly be her most most underrated performance throughout her career.
Rapace is known for going to extremes for her work and she never fails to astound her audiences. Previously, she has been so entrenched in a role that she experienced physical pain — the intensity of her Girl with the Dragon Tattoo performance even made her vomit. Here, she takes on the role of seven different characters, so it definitely makes sense when she said this movie wasn’t easy. But why exactly is What Happened to Monday so underrated?
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Noomi Rapace is a Family of Seven Siblings
Netflix
Set in the future, What Happened to Monday is a dystopian movie where the government only allows you to have one child. Using bracelets to detect whether you have any siblings, the Child Allocation Bureau take any extra children to put them into cryosleep. However, in hiding, seven sisters who share one identity are forced to live without being detected, but when the seventh sister goes missing, the remaining six must avoid the government in order to find her.
Each sister is named after the days of the week, which must be the easiest way to keep track of them all. As each sister gets to leave the house on their day of the week, they all socially appear as Karen Settman. While they may all act the same on the outside as Karen, in the comfort of their own home, their unique personalities are allowed to shine through, thanks to their grandfather (Willem Dafoe) who has raised them in secret after the death of their mother. Although, he definitely made sure that they all look the same, even down to chopping off a section of their finger - when one sister has an accident and loses a finger, they all do. Nevertheless, they are taught to fight and survive if ever they’re caught, so when Monday disappears, they quickly discover that those skills will come in handy to find her.
Rapace in Action
Rapace has the opportunity to showcase her skills in this great action movie, as she appears as all seven different sisters in a variety of scenes with guns and punches being thrown, all of which are incredibly suspenseful and keep you on your feet. Director, Tommy Wirkola isn’t afraid of holding back on the violence or tension, and action-thriller fans will be pleased to know that there are some excellent shootouts and a surprising amount of stomach-churning, bloody sequences.
With the majority of sisters present in a scene all at once, the acting skills by Rapace to pull that off are undoubtedly extraordinary. Taking a page out of Tatiana Maslany’s (Orphan Black) book, the time, planning, and skill needed to choregoraph, perform, and edit together these sequences is one of the reasons What Happened to Monday is disappointingly underrated. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Rapace talks about her experience playing the different characters:
Noomi Rapace Answers What Happened to Monday
Playing so many characters is definitely impressive, and something not every actor is able to achieve, and Rapace does an incredible job at creating each sister uniquely. Not to mention, the script that was given to her was actually very vague, and viewers will be impressed that she turned what was “the uptight sister,” “the sexy sister,” and “the angry rebel sister” into such detailed and intricate characters. So now, when you watch the film, it is unbelievable what was created from so little.
It was different versions of me, just more extreme. It was very intense, I never worked so hard. My routine was very strict. I was up at four in the morning. I worked out. I went to the studio. Shot all day, went back to the hotel, went to the gym and fell asleep. I didn’t have a life. It was five months of my life when seven sisters were living with me and took over everything. I didn’t exist.
Rapace is able to make each sister similar, but still different with little gestures and vocal modulations that make it so real. As a result, when all seven siblings are on-screen together, it is so easy to forget that they are all played by the same actress. If there was any reason for this movie to be underrated, it would definitely be for Rapace’s performance(s).
In the end, What Happened to Monday is first and foremost an action movie, and it doesn’t disappoint as such, despite also being a quite personal film that’s ultimately about the love of family. The chase scenes, shootouts, and fistfights are still great fun to watch, but it is the love between the seven sisters that is the most heartwarming and also underrated aspect of the film, allowing the audience to think about their family and the risks they would go to save them.
