The Assessment Film Review: Domestic Dystopia

Elizabeth Olsen and Himesh Patel must undergo ‘the assessment’ if they are to be allowed to have children in this dark dystopian three-hander.

On a future Earth ravaged by climate change, a border separates the ‘old world’ and the new. Aaryan (Patel) and Mia (Olsen) live in the latter, and are model citizens helping society to achieve a sustainable future. Not everyone is so fortunate; Mia’s mother was sent back to the old world years ago for dissenting from the authoritarian regime in charge of controlling resources and the population. Theirs is a familiar dance, one we’ve seen countless times throughout human history: support the cause and we’ll let you live in peace.

They inhabit a large concrete structure in the middle of nowhere, she a botanist, he creating digitally rendered pets; domesticated animals have also been banned. All things considered, they’ve done pretty well for themselves, protected from the elements by some kind of atmospheric force field with an AI assistant delivering their vitamins and regulating radiation levels, but there’s one thing missing. To get it, they just need to pass the assessment, a seven-day process with unclear methodologies and criteria, involving Alicia Vikander’s assessor Virginia staying at their home.

Things get very weird very quickly. Vikander is great as the mysterious assessor, who at the flick of a switch goes back and forth between formal interrogations and unanticipated child role play, screaming the house down and throwing food at the would-be parents. The Swede clearly relishes the part, her character’s power over the couple as the decider of their fate and the inherent patheticness of the task at hand both evident in her cool, unnerving gaze; it’s hard to know whether to fear or pity her. Patel is strong as the obsessive tech bro; one suspects that through his creations he already has the only baby he needs, but Olsen is the real lead, delivering Mia’s troubled past and desire for the perfect life with moving authenticity.

Similarly well depicted is the world of the film. Its visual effects, costumes and set design provide subtle details that fill us in on the kind of future that has unfolded. The house, which is such a focal point, is the most impressive of the film’s visual elements, with a design that blendscontemporary Silicon Valley minimalism with ‘80 glass blocks and De Stijl-esque squares of colour; one imagines it would look terribly chic to those of taste in this new society.

The only letdown is the script, which too often opts for exposition where its viewers could be trusted to join the dots for themselves. An interesting epilogue takes the film in an unexpected direction, but for the most part The Assessment plays out fairly predictably. Once the shock of Virginia’s absurd evaluation methods wears off, its observations about relationships, performativity and human nature feel a little old-hat. It doesn’t help that Vikander’s presence invites comparisons to Alex Garland’s Ex Machina, a tonally and thematically analogous work that is superior to this one in almost every way.

Not everything about The Assessment works, but at its best it is oppressively, and impressively, tense. The awkwardness of the central dynamic is compounded by its striking images and an unnerving original score from Emilie Levienaise-Farouch, making for a suitably uncomfortable two hours. And then there’s Vikander; her bizarre, layered performance is a reminder that she’s one of Hollywood’s finest right now.

The Assessment was screened at TIFF on September 9-14, 2024. Read our list of films to watch at the 2024 Toronto Film Festival!