In the future, as depicted in Fleur Fortuné’s compelling but uneven debut The Assessment , environmental catastrophe has ravaged the planet. A border divides the old world from the new one, where people like Mia (Elizabeth Olsen) and Aaryan (Himesh Patel) live under strict rules. Properties are encased in atmospheric pressure domes, which protect homes from even more unpredictable elements. The government, an omnipresent surveillance state, monitors daily life: They deliver vitamins to control lifespans, enlist people to build technology and conduct research that guarantees a sustainable future for society and exiled dissidents across the border. They also control the population by putting citizens who want a child through a grueling seven-day assessment overseen by a random state agent.
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Details about the exam are scant (transparency is not the modus operandi) and everyone, including Mia and Aaryn, thinks they would make great parents. When their assessor, Virginia (an excellent Alicia Vikander), hears that, she lets out an amused chuckle. It rattles this high-achieving and over-prepared couple, who, in their words, are eager to nurture the next generation of their society. Mia conducts research on sustainable food while Aaryn fiddles with artificial intelligence in an attempt to create highly realistic pets. (His current roadblock involves getting the texture of the fur just right.) They live in a tastefully furnished home — a minimalist abode fit for a creative couple in Marfa (production design by Jan Houllevigue) — and wear the kind of linens and turtlenecks coveted by wealthy technologists in Silicon Valley (costume design by Sarah Blenkinsop).
The Assessment , which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, is most persuasive when it focuses on how this seemingly perfect couple proves their worthiness to the state. Virginia’s presence shifts the vibe of the home, giving it a more tense and sinister edge. The overly professional assessor begins the exam with basic biographical questions before slipping, with deceptive ease, into the role of a child. Her performance confuses Mia and Aaryan at first, but soon they assume their roles too.
In these moments, The Assessment becomes a gripping psychological chamber drama about the ego surrender of parenthood. It also cleverly reveals how child-rearing styles are informed by one’s past and insecurities. When Virginia refuses breakfast in favor of a meltdown, Mia and Aaryan’s reactions — discipline versus capitulation — tell us more about themselves than any quiz could.
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Within the confines of the home, Olsen, Patel and Vikander are steller. Their performances require them to balance two roles: Olsen and Patel are not just a researching power couple, but new parents to Vikander, who is at once a “child” and arbiter of their fate. Vikander is particularly compelling in a part that requires her to wield and shift between different kinds of power. Some of the strongest scenes in The Assessment , which was written by screenwriting duo Mr. & Mrs. Thomas and the playwright John Donnelly, involve Virginia pretending to be a toddler, testing the will of her parents and playing against their desire to win her affection. One striking incident involves an impromptu dinner party, in which Mia and Aaryan must prepare to host their parents, friends and acquaintances while balancing Virginia’s increasingly infantile behavior. Fortuné directs that scene with confidence, conveying the panic that sets in when parents must manage the demands of raising another human with the social pressure to maintain their composure.
Over the course of seven days, Virginia finds new and unique ways to break Mia and Aaryan’s will. The test becomes an all consuming exercise, one that also forces the couples to reckon with themselves and their reasons for wanting a kid. Virginia becomes, then, like a mirror for Mia and Aaryan, past and present. Through their interactions and playacting, they confront painful memories and deep-seated anxieties. The results are at once terrifying and absorbing.
At its best, The Assessment smartly taps into and maintains its focus on the near universal anxiety about parenting in a world made increasingly uninhabitable by overconsumption and climate change. But the film loses its way when it widens its scope and tries to incorporate eleventh-hour world-building. Leaving Mia and Aaryan’s home generates questions about their society that the film doesn’t have time to answer. Well-earned focus is lost as our attention turns to trying to understand the construction of the new world and its relationship to the old one. Previously taut performances unravel as a result of this extension, and the story meanders to a conclusion weighted with false profundity. Toward its end, The Assessment begins to feel like a far less compelling story than the one we’ve just spent an hour and a half engrossed in.
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