THE ASSESSMENT - Mark Reviews Movies

The Assessment, Magnolia Pictures

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Review by Mark Dujsik | March 20, 2025

The world and stakes of the backdrop of The Assessment are quite dire. This is set in an unspecified future, after Earth has become nearly uninhabitable due to climate change. From what we learn, the planet is divided into a New World and an Old World. The New World is surrounded by an atmospheric dome that prevents the worst conditions of the devastated planet from affecting those living inside it. Those in the Old World, a place of exile for people who question or do not follow the rules of the New World's new society, are not so fortunate.

With all of this in place, the premise of the actual story of director Fleur Fortuné's debut feature is admirably small and grounded. It follows a married couple—a pair of innovators who have brought some necessities and comforts to those living with limited resources in the New World.

They want to have a child, but because resources are limited and everyone takes a drug that grants them long life and good health, the government has banned human reproduction within the boundaries of the New World. Prospective parents must apply to be assessed on their contributions to society, their loyalty to this system, and, of course, their ability to, well, parent a child.

The logic here is sound enough for a story and harsh enough as a possible reality of some future in which such a world-devastating scenario occurs. We accept what the screenplay gives us, as well as the main characters Mia and Aaryan, who are played by Elizabeth Olsen and Himesh Patel with such simple sincerity that this dystopian future of technological advancement and authoritarian government comes across as quite down-to-earth. Then, the assessment begins.

To call the process strange is an understatement. The idea is that a government-assigned assessor lives with applicants for parenthood for a week, in order to observe their relationship, their daily routines, the state of the household, and anything else that would be important for bringing a child into a home. This isn't the odd part, obviously. No, that would be the assessor herself, a woman named Virgina (Alicia Vikander), who takes observation and testing the potential parents' readiness to extremes.

For as believable as the backdrop and as modest as the setup of this movie are, the actual plot becomes quite ridiculous. Indeed, it's basically a kind of farce, in which Virginia probes Mia and Aaryan about the most intimate details of their relationship, actually makes herself a witness to some of those intimate moments in the couple's bedroom, and puts them in variously uncomfortable positions, such as inviting former lovers and Aaryan's critical mother (played by Indira Varma) to an impromptu dinner at their house.

The big gag of the screenplay, written by John Donnelly and "Mrs. & Mr. Thomas" (Is this credit a form of branding or a sign that two of the authors aren't happy with the results?), is that Virgina spends most of her time pretending to be a kid. She protests eating, throws food at the couple, and makes a mess of the kitchen when Mia and Aaryan try to discuss what to do about the grown woman having a hissy fit at breakfast.

From there, the assessment process becomes a bunch of similar tests—as recognizable as the challenge of a couple putting a playpen together without too much argument, as severe as what to do when a child goes missing, as deranged as when the childlike Virgina starts calling Aaryan "daddy" with a knowing gleam in her eyes and eventually crawls into bed with him. The early joke, apparently, is that parenting is regularly and familiarly tough, even in a future in which houses are smart, virtual worlds and animals can be created out of nothing, and the fate of humanity's survival is at stake. It's as obvious as it sounds.

Fortuné, however, doesn't seem to be playing this as the comedy it inherently is, simply from the sight of an actor as talented as Vikander pretending to be a spoiled brat on behalf of a totalitarian government. This appears to be very serious stuff in the filmmaker's mind, and the dissonance of that dreary and somber atmosphere clashing with the basic absurdity of what happens in this story is jarring.

By the time everything comes around again to approaching these characters with sincerity and this world as if it's filled with Big Questions about society and humanity and what it means to live, The Assessment is just out of its depth. The movie is either too intentionally silly for such concerns or so unwittingly shallow that the joke's on it.

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