(L to R) Alicia Vikander and Elizabeth Olsen in ‘The Assessment’, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo credit: Magnus Jønck. © 2024 Number 9 Films Assessment Limited, TA Co-Production GmbH, ShivHans Productions, LLC, TA2022 Investors, LLC, Tiki Tāne Pictures, LLC. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
‘The Assessment’ receives 7.5 out of 10 stars.
Opening in theaters on March 21st, ‘The Assessment’ is the sort of thoughtful, low-key but sometimes too dense science fiction movie that largely stays in the indie space since it’s unlikely to attract a giant blockbuster crowd.
Yet it’s somehow reassuring that in an age where IP is king and originality can be scarce at your local cinema, something like this can still hit screens.
Related Article: Alicia Vikander and Director Fleur Fortuné Talk ‘The Assessment’
Does ‘The Assessment’ pass the test?
Alicia Vikander in ‘The Assessment’, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo credit: Magnus Jønck. © 2024 Number 9 Films Assessment Limited, TA Co-Production GmbH, ShivHans Productions, LLC, TA2022 Investors, LLC, Tiki Tāne Pictures, LLC. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
‘The Assessment’ probably works best if you like your science fiction with some brain matter behind it; but there is also a deep well of emotion running here.
In the mold of Aldous Huxley in particular, its story of a climate-ravaged world that is struggling to survive in the wake of enormous damage done by mankind, it also posits a society that has adapted to dwindling resources by development of a miracle drug that can ward off disease and slow down aging.
But it’s also a tightly-controlled authoritarian regime where dissent is punishable by exile to the savage wastes outside the habitable domes where those who have the resources and are willing to both contribute and obey dwell.
In reality, though, the movie’s focus is much tighter –– it’s the tale of a couple who wish to have a child (reproduction through any method than some asexual fertilization process following a strict assessment period is forbidden) struggling with the unusual demands of the woman sent to test their suitability to be parents at all.
What transpires is a chaotic, testing battle of wills between the two prospective parents and the assessor, who tests them in ways they probably weren’t expecting; this is more than just checking to see if they’ve baby-proofed the wall sockets.
Script and Direction
Fleur Fortuné, director of ‘The Assessment’, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
Written by Nell Garfath Cox, Dave Thomas (who collectively work as filmmaking team Mr. and Mrs. Thomas) along with John Donnelly, this is a cold, thoughtful movie that tells its story with enough human emotion to keep it from feeling like a film school test case. We’re introduced to the central pair through their daily lives as scientists and lovers, but the plot proper doesn’t kick in until the Assessor, played by Alicia Vikander arrives.
As director, music video helmer Fleur Fortune, who has also worked on short films, brings a careful touch to the film, which walks the line of being too intellectual with some skill. She has a keen eye for a visual and also gets great work out of some very good actors. There’s a real melancholy to the movie, even as the color palette is warm and inviting.
Cast and Performances
Elizabeth Olsen in ‘The Assessment’, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo credit: Magnus Jønck. © 2024 Number 9 Films Assessment Limited, TA Co-Production GmbH, ShivHans Productions, LLC, TA2022 Investors, LLC, Tiki Tāne Pictures, LLC. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
Elizabeth Olsen brings quiet grace to Mia, one half of the couple looking to reproduce, yet when scenes call for her to explode with anger, frustration or sadness, she’s more than up to those tasks also.
It’s Mia’s journey we’re truly on, from meeting her as a young girl abandoned by her mother to the grown woman who is willing to go to whatever lengths to both help society prosper and achieve her own aims, but comes up against some very tough home truths.
As Aaryan, Himesh Patel is dedicated and subtle, a man who will do anything for his wife, but who finds himself conflicted when the challenge of having the assessor in their home becomes all too strange.
Himesh Patel in ‘The Assessment’, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo credit: Cristina Rios. © 2024 Number 9 Films Assessment Limited, TA Co-Production GmbH, ShivHans Productions, LLC, TA2022 Investors, LLC, Tiki Tāne Pictures, LLC. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
Yet beyond the main pair, this is really Alicia Vikander’s film on a pure performance level. Playing Virginia, the state-appointed assessor whose task it is to decide across seven days whether Mia and Aaryan should get to have a child, she gives a tour-de-force acting class.
Switching from bureaucratically efficient to childishly wild in just a few scenes, Vikander here throws herself into the role and brings a truly complicated person to life.
Stealing the one scene in which she appears is Minnie Driver as Evie, who is old enough to remember the time before the world was ravaged and is soundly cynical about humanity’s chances now, not to mention scathingly critical of those who wish to bring more people into it.
It’s a superb turn from the actor, who spins a vision of a world so bleak that you both recoil from it but sometimes find yourself wishing the movie could expand to show it.
Final Thoughts
Elizabeth Olsen in ‘The Assessment’, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo credit: Magnus Jønck. © 2024 Number 9 Films Assessment Limited, TA Co-Production GmbH, ShivHans Productions, LLC, TA2022 Investors, LLC, Tiki Tāne Pictures, LLC. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
‘The Assessment’ will certainly be a tough watch for some; not just because of what happens in the movie, but also because of the subjects it addresses, including the control of women, the battle for resources and the challenges that parents of any type face.
Yet if you allow yourself to sink into its world, you’ll be rewarded.
“Would you pass?”
In a climate change-ravaged world, a utopian society optimizes life, including parenthood assessments. A successful couple faces scrutiny by an evaluator over seven… Read the Plot
What is the plot of ‘The Assessment’?
In the near future, prospective parents must pass an initial test to prove their suitability for parenthood, and then endure a seven-day live-in visit from a facilitator known as the assessor who will put them through the wringer in all kinds of imaginable and unimaginable situations where, at the end, they will either get a passing grade — or not. Mia (Elizabeth Olsen) and Aaryan (Himesh Patel) are assigned an assessor named Virginia (Alicia Vikander), and as they begin the uncomfortable tests, their relationship begins to crumble.
Who is in the cast of ‘The Assessment’?
Alicia Vikander in ‘The Assessment’, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo credit: Magnus Jønck. © 2024 Number 9 Films Assessment Limited, TA Co-Production GmbH, ShivHans Productions, LLC, TA2022 Investors, LLC, Tiki Tāne Pictures, LLC. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.
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