‘The Assessment’ Review: Alicia Vikander and Elizabeth Olsen Test Each Other in a Smart, Stripped Down Sci-Fi Parable About Parenting

Aaryan (Himesh Patel) spends much of “The Assessment” fiddling with skin, having developed a tactile virtual simulation of an animal to replace the creatures that were sacrificed in a near-extinction level event some time prior. The flesh is too tough sometimes, too synthetic at others, but he’s certainly onto something and it’s hard not to feel the same way about the sci-fi candy coating on Fleur Fortuné’s strong, darkly amusing feature is. In fact, the debut, which launched with a world premiere at the Toronto International Festival, is so idiosyncratic that it might’ve been even better if it had dropped its genre trappings entirely.

But removing that dystopian future could deprive Fortuné of such a convincing showcase for her as a clearly gifted visual stylist and the license for some knockout production design from Jan Houllevigue and a bold score from Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch, both of which organically suggest how a world increasingly devoid of humanity has made it all the more important for those alive to leave an impression with handmade touches throughout. However, the ingenious premise of the script penned by Mrs. & Mr. Thomas (a.k.a. Nell Garfath Cox and Dave Thomas) and John Donnelly renders the extra coat of paint a bit unnecessary when allegory isn’t needed to relate to Aaryan and his partner Mia (Elizabeth Olsen), as they subject themselves to an interview conducted by a representative from the state to determine their suitability for parenthood. When Virginia (Alicia Vikander) shows up at the door of their seaside abode, Mia feels obligated to ask what she’s looking for in an adoption applicant; that answer is shrouded in a bit more mystery than you’d expect, even from a tight-lipped professional.

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There are vague references to what’s happening outside of Aaryan and Mia’s remote corner of Earth, a planet divvied up between what’s called the “old world” and the better place that the couple inhabits where strict population control has made an inhospitable climate bearable again. But “The Assessment” is wise to largely set any blatantly expository world building to the side when the excruciating process Mia and Aaryan undergo to prove themselves to a stranger is engaging enough. Save for Aaryan’s pitch-black back room where he works on his virtual pets, the most peculiar story element in the film has nothing to do with sci-fi, but the fact that Virginia is obliged to stay for a total of seven days in their home to get a proper read on them. What’s more, she starts to behave like the baby they’d ultimately care for to gauge their reaction.

Vikander has a ball as the trouble-making Virginia, dipping into a well of eccentricities she hasn’t often gotten to show outside of her collaborations with fellow Swede Lisa Langseth in “Hotell” and the 2017 film “Euphoria.” Patel and Olsen are equally good as the unnerved pair of scientists who could obviously handle the responsibilities to taking care of a child, but not might not survive this weeklong experiment. “The Assessment” is smartly structured, with each day bringing a new challenge that makes Mia and Aaryan question themselves, including Virginia’s childish temper tantrums, assembling a Bucky Ball-like playhouse akin to many IKEA nightmares and a surprise dinner party they have to throw for assorted guests from their lives that they wouldn’t likely have invited themselves. The only issue arrives when “The Assessment” is compelled to circle back to its broader context after the process itself is over.

Although all involved obviously thought through the implications of the story, the ending is slightly less satisfying than what’s come before when it throws out a number of big ideas that it doesn’t have the time to entirely flesh out. Still, even when “The Assessment” goes beyond its smaller scale, it has a lot on its mind throughout and Fortuné ably balances the cerebral with the emotional. The film may depict a society losing touch with humanity, but is unusually affecting when it shows no lack of it of its own.

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