The Girl from Monday

Plot summary

A being from another planet (Abracos) arrives on Earth and takes human form.

In voiceover, Jack Bell (Bill Sage) explains how his ideas came to bring the "triple M" into power and reduce human beings to mere consumers, pawns of the corporation.

The innovative idea Jack contributes to Triple M is that, since sexually active people are the most active consumers, people will record each of their sexual encounters as an economic transaction. This will increase their desirability rating, their value as sexual commodities, and therefore also their credit rating. Because of its direct relation to one's credit rating and buying power, insurance policies covering a person's sexual desirability are available.

Jack tries to hook up with Cecile (Sabrina Lloyd) but fails, leading the insurance company to investigate why this happened. The insurance agent decides it's not Cecile's fault and her premium remains the same, while Jack's is raised.

By chance Cecile meets up with a teenager in the counter-revolution, who takes her to a place where people have sex because it feels good. Cecile is arrested and sentenced to "two years hard labor... teaching high school."

At the high school, Cecile reads Thoreau's book Walden and is inspired to join the counter-revolution.

Meanwhile, Jack finds the girl from the planet Monday (named after its discoverer, Vincent Monday, explains Jack in voice-over) and teaches her how to fit into human society. But the girl, who refers to herself as 'nobody', just wants to go home. Jack, it turns out, is also from that planet, and has tried and failed to go home. They go to the ocean, where the girl walks into the ocean. Jack says he doesn't know if she made it or not.

Reception

Stephen Holden, writing for The New York Times, opines that "Like so many science fiction fantasies, Hal Hartley's new film begins with a clever satirical premise, then stumbles all over itself trying to tell a coherent, original story." Peter Hanson, writing for Film Threat, called it "A profoundly unnecessary movie."

In comparison to Hartley's earlier work, this film and No Such Thing "may have lacked the impact of his first features, [but] they certainly demonstrate that Hartley is a director still unafraid to take apart and reassemble the medium."

Availability

The region 1 DVD release came out on November 7, 2006 and was made available to Netflix customers to rent.

Artificial Eye released the region 2 PAL-format DVD as part of their Hal Hartley Collection, available as a standalone edition or in a 3-disc set with Trust and Henry Fool.

In 2012, the film's screenplay was released exclusively on Hal Hartley's website in a book that also included the screenplays for The Book of Life and No Such Thing.