Monday
IFC FilmsMonday, starring Sebastian Stan and Denise Gough, is a hedonistic tale of what happens after the credits on a romantic comedy roll. Mickey (Sebastian Stan) is a DJ in Athens and literally stumbles into Chloe at a party. At the urging of a friend the two start making out, because they are seemingly the only two Americans there. What should be a mere one night stand on the beaches of Greece and a booking for indecent exposure, Monday pairs these two characters together to have sex over and over again, until Mickey asks Chloe to move in with him instead of going back to the United States.
As the film’s title suggests, Monday focuses on the Friday highs and the Monday lows of a relationship. In Mickey and Chloe’s case, the highs are simply having sex and the lows are being around each other any other time. Writer and director Argyris Papadimitropoulos makes Monday out to be an intriguing concept but fails to translate it to the film. Firstly, the actors are simply too old to make their hedonistic actions believable, or at the very least Denise Gough is. Sebastian Stan’s Mickey can get away with his age because he’s a partying DJ; Chloe is an immigration lawyer in her forties. It’s difficult to believe she would totally uproot her life for a guy she randomly had sex with in Greece, even if he did follow her to the airport. When Chloe is moving into Mickey’s apartment, they struggle to get her couch up the stairs – the one thing she’s ever invested in – and she quickly lets it go to be burned in the streets, which again doesn’t make sense considering her character. As their relationship starts to go downhill, it’s easy to judge her because that is exactly what happens when you choose to date a man nearing his forties who DJs and does cocaine. Sebastian Stan’s Mickey is just another guy who won’t let go of his youth, but Denise Gough’s Chloe should be smarter than she is.
FRIDAY in bold white lettering continuously flashes across the screen throughout Monday, these scenes being when Mickey and Chloe’s relationship is at its best, but also creates a lot of confusion for interpreting the passage of time. It’s difficult to figure out how long the relationship has progressed until Sebastian Stan’s character has a throwaway line towards the end of the film where he mentions six months have passed. The film is meandering and directionless and further contributes to the confusion around timing. In between the Friday highs are plenty of obvious warning signs that their relationship has no future, Mickey continues to be a huge party animal, while Chloe is seeking a stable relationship. Despite the red flags, Mickey and Chloe keep trying, despite having no reason to like each other.
Papadimitropoulos’s directing does excel when it comes to Monday’s numerous partying and sex scenes. Monday does have an exciting spring break energy to it, something that is a long way away considering the world’s current climate. The party scenes are fun and crazy, and Hristos Karamanis brings the audience straight into the fray. Monday is also littered with gratuitous sex scenes, and when they’re starring Sebastian Stan, those are quite nice to see – though it borders on too much. The sex scenes show another chemistry issue between the actors as they seem quite awkward at the film’s beginning and become more comfortable with each other as Monday progresses, which doesn’t make sense considering the characters’ relationship trajectory.
Despite all its problems, Monday is still an entertaining film to watch with a fascinating concept. It’s easy to imagine classic rom-com characters in the same situation and wondering if their relationship lasts past the credits. Plus, when a film features Sebastian Stan cutting onions in his underwear and scuba goggles, you really can’t go wrong.