Has the Groundhog Day theme officially jumped the groundhog yet? A likable and -yet- possible “yes” to that question is Mondays, which tells of a weekly time loop that traps and holds hostage an entire office.
It’s hard not to like the premise here. Anyone who has ever held a 9 to 5 office job for more than a month understands the endless repetition that already gives one a Groundhog Day feel. You go to a site, you sit at a desk, and you proceed to do the same things you’ve been doing over and over and over again. And you’re satisfied with it because a paycheck is a paycheck and most everything new = pain.
In Japan, the constant feeling of office drudgery might be even worse, as working weekends and pulling office all-nighters seem (relatively) common practice -assuming recent movies haven’t lied to me. Mondays begins with the office literally waking up to a pigeon slamming into the window. This simple recurring event becomes not only the signal that the week hasn’t changed but the mechanism by which those who know they’re stuck in a time loop can convince others.
The film was originally titled Mondays: See You This Week (cute, no?) and seems much more about convincing and connecting than solving the issue. We all remember Groundhog Day. Bill Murray was the only one in on the joke. Occasionally, he’d try to convince Andie MacDowell that the day was repeating, but only to get her input, not to share his Hellish eternity. In Mondays, the “in-on-it” gang expands by one every week so that the entire office crew might eventually all be on the same page.
The film might be worth it for the anticipatory power point alone in trying to convince a boss he’s in a time loop. Also enjoyable is a possible solution involving the completion of a manga completely superfl
uous to office activity, instead this is just a personal hobby that all the employees suddenly share.
What frightened me most about this film was a time loop in which one never leaves work. I imagine everybody finally ending the workweek from Hell and all simultaneously quitting to become forest rangers or, I dunno, drifters. Why would you wish to spend all your livable time in an office? But I digress.
Mondays is that rare film that I’m going to recommend despite the fact that it left me unsatisfied. While I enjoyed the moments, and of course we’re all rooting for the time loop to end, it was near impossible for me to jive with the final triggering mechanism. Only, and I repeat, ONLY in Japan could one have a solution to a Groundhog Day time loop be “more company teamwork!” Who made this picture? Mr. Nissan? Mr. Sony? There might be decent team solutions to time loop problems out there, but I guarantee none of them ought to help the CEOs bottom line. That’s a promotion of capitalism at its worst.
Once an office was stuck in a time loop
Without any ability to recoup
The way to get through
Was simply to do
All their engagement in think, group
Not Rated, 82 Minutes
Director: Ryo Takebayashi
Writer: Saeri Natsuo, Ryo Takebayashi
Genre: Groundhoffice Day
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Japanese CEOs
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Frustrated peons
