Director: Fleur Fortune
Writer: Mrs. Thomas, Mr. Thomas, John Donnelly
Stars: Alicia Vikander, Elizabeth Olsen, Himesh Patel
Synopsis: In the near future where parenthood is strictly controlled, a couple’s seven-day assessment for the right to have a child unravels into a psychological nightmare.
Deciding to become a parent is a life-changing revelation in a couple’s life. The financial, personal, and even social alterations that come with bringing a child into the world aren’t to be taken lightly. Now imagine a future where resources are scarce, and couples looking to start a family must go through a grueling 7-day government assessment. Fleur Fortune’s debut strips away the human aspects of conceiving a child in a world reeling from environmental damage. The Assessment is a dystopian exploration of anxieties new parents have, while examining their lives in torturous methods.
Under a protective dome live Mia (Elizabeth Olsen) and Aaryan (Himesh Patel), both researchers in their own respective fields. Mia mostly works with cultivation in her greenhouse, caring for plants in a world where natural resources are scarce. Aaryan works more in the realm of the inorganic, creating comforts lost from the old world, like pets through technology. They both have crafted advancements in their lines of work and are regarded with respect in the bureaucracy of their government. In the agreement that they’d both make great parents, Mia and Aaryan jointly decide to embark on the assessment, a 7-day test that, at the end, results in a child if passed and no child if failed, with the assessor’s verdict being final. In The Assessment, this is the only way a couple can have a child; all other forms of child-rearing are banned.
Once their assessor Virginia (Alicia Vikander) enters their home, their lives will never be the same. Mia and Aaryan have prepared as well as they could for their visit, as the details of the assessment are veiled in secrecy. As Virginia questions both hopeful parents separately, their motivations for becoming a parent become clear. Mia wants a child to heal her younger self who felt abandoned; Aaryan wants to prove that he can be a good father. Their well-polished demeanor quickly starts to unravel as the assessment begins, and Virginia goes from a stone-faced assessor to the couple’s pseudo-child, challenging their patience as the one person deciding their parental fate. As the lines between her adult self, and her child self fade into one another, the film takes a dark turn. The Assessment is at its best when Vikander is on screen, plotting ways to break down her subject’s confidence.
The Assessment captures those near-future sci-fi aesthetics so well, mainly in the costume design by Sarah Blenkinsop and the production design by Jan Houllevigue. The film mostly takes place inside the home of the hopeful parents, and from the get-go, it’s known these two are successful. Their home is well-manicured and filled with perfectly placed furniture that looks like it’s out of a trendy home decor magazine. Their clothing is chic, consisting of basics that fit them just right; no flashy logos or branding—it’s basic, but it exudes a level of effortless style. There’s love to be shared with Magnus Jønck’s cinematography that captures their home in unique framing, mostly in wide shots from the outside displaying the minimalist design in a dust covered landscape with the dome looming over them.
What makes The Assessment tick is the performance from Vikander, who commands the screen with an equally infuriating and comedic presence. Her ability to shift from an emotionless assessor peeping into intimate moments between her subjects, and into a food-flinging stubborn child is genius. Her best moments come during a dinner scene in the later days of the assessment, a crucial task pass. Surrounded by their most hostile guests of past lovers, collaborators, and even relatives, Vikander’s performance nails just how much pressure Mia and Aaryan have on them to pass. Olsen and Patel are often overshadowed by a powerhouse performance by Vikander as she taps into her inner Dennis the Menace.
Director Fleur Fortune shows a world removed from common pleasures, where the food often looks unappetizing, and starting a family is out of the question unless you fit the perfect mold. The Assessment flirts with different genres as there are many aspects of the film that are darkly comedic, with Virginia testing her would-be parents, and even psychologically thrilling as she places wedges in the marriage of Mia and Aaryan. Fortune balances these mostly well as she leans on Vikander to push the film through the script’s weaker moments.
There’s a larger story within The Assessment that gets lost within the main plot of the 7-day assessment, and while watching the film, moments where characters bring up the old world, and its border problem, along with a drug they take to prolong their lives feels more compelling. Mia and Aaryan’s story is rather repetitive, never letting audiences truly get to know them enough to care about what happens to them after the assessment is over. Writers Mrs Thomas, Mr Thomas, and John Donnelly craft such an interesting backstory for the society that they live in, but no character, other than Virginia has a fleshed out enough character arc to be impactful. Its commentary on parenthood gets lost in a more interesting side story about a world losing its resources, and how it got there.
Overall, The Assessment is an impressive debut from Fortune who brings a career best performance out of Vikander, and although the film’s script loses momentum, it’s sure to spark conversations surrounding a future with limited resources.
