The Assessment
Directed by Fleur Fortuné
Written by Dave Thomas, Nell Garfath-Cox, & John Donnelly
Starring Elizabeth Olsen, Alicia Vikander, & Himesh Patel
Rated R
Runtime: 1 hour and 54 minutes
In theaters on March 21

by Melissa Strong, Staff Writer

The Assessment (dir. Fleur Fortuné in her feature debut), a sci fi thriller about parenthood, promises a welcome cinematic escape from our current reality. Set in the future after an environmental crisis, the movie follows scientists Mia (Elizabeth Olsen) and Aaryan (Himesh Patel) through a government-mandated assessment to qualify to have a child. Alicia Vikander plays Virginia, the assessor conducting the weeklong series of tests at the couple’s beautiful home. The movie’s subject, along with its female-led cast and crew, piqued my interest. It seemed like a great way to forget a recent cross-country flight during which one man kicked my seat like a drum and another man spread his limbs into my space. Meanwhile, the men in government do similar things with my freedoms.

The Assessment took me far from these cares into a place that looks so much better. Beneath the pretty surface, it is much worse. This is no spoiler: The Assessment jumps right into its horrors instead of building to them. Music by Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch warns of the hidden evils of the gorgeous New World, in which citizens are protected from the dangers of the old one. But instead of exploring reproduction, bodily autonomy, or even parenting, The Assessment focuses on the costs of submitting to an all-powerful State and depicts a future even less female than our present.

The script by Dave Thomas, Nell Garfath-Cox, and John Donnelly–vomitously credited as “Mrs. and Mr. Thomas John Donnelly”–may contribute to the lack of nuance. Regardless, you should watch The Assessment. The movie passes the Bechdel Test and features strong performances from Minnie Driver, Olsen, and especially Vikander. The Assessment establishes Vikander among the best actors working today, with a command of her craft and instrument in league with Cate Blanchett and Tilda Swinton.

Vikander’s Virginia is the first sign of things amiss in this brave new world. She resembles an unnatural, unnerving combination of Max Headroom and Mrs. Danvers during the initial meeting with Mia and Aaryan. The Assessment quickly reveals that there is no real Virginia, only a cipher who tests the couple by taking on various roles, personas, attitudes, and behaviors. Veering from stern government assessor to rebellious child, Virginia is unpredictable and terrifying. She tests limits of all kinds, pits Mia and Aaryan against each other, and weaponizes what she learns about them.

A nightmarish dinner party is a turning point that provides backstory on the characters and their attractive, scary world where people live under domes in houses like high-tech art galleries. The guest list includes a series of walking minefields, all with opinions about Mia, Aaryan, and their undertaking. Driver is terrific as a sesquicentennarian telling the grim fairy tale of the New World. Yet this scene also epitomizes The Assessment’s utter masculinity. Its female characters may look like women, but they have assimilated into a society with even less esteem for kindness, empathy, cooperation, honesty, and boundaries than our present one, which feminizes many of these traits and values. The New World seems redolent of white masculinity, yet somehow no white men appear in the movie. And depending on your views about gender, bodies, and biology, “women” may not appear either.

It is disappointing that The Assessment does not explore these issues, which are interesting and timely. I like that it raises them, and the movie also boasts good cinematography and design. It spends time on explication at the expense of development, though, including character development. Backstories full of gaps largely serve plot points. The film’s emphasis on (and criticisms of) mothers and mothering is perplexing, and it is ironic given the ban on in-utero gestation.

The Assessment is about how far people will go to have a child, what happens if they can’t, and how this impacts others. It is also about greed, exploitation, and difficult decisions. I wish it were a tighter jam, but The Assessment is a triumph for Vikander and a haunting feature debut for Fortuné. It disturbs relentlessly in ways that may alienate some viewers. Watching The Assessment was as comfortable as that cross-country flight, but I cannot stop thinking about it.

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