The Assessment Review: LFF 2024

As intelligent as it is bleak, The Assessment is a thrilling Sci Fi debut

In a not-too-distant future ecologist Mia (Elizabeth Olsen) and AI engineer Aaryan (Himesh Patel) are preparing for the assessment, a government mandated exam that will determine if they are allowed to become parents or not. Though nervous they feel confident in their chances of passing – only the top 0.1% of society are allowed to even take the assessment – so they must be pretty remarkable people, right?

Fleur Fortune’s debut feature imagines an all too realistic future. Climate change has blown up, crops have withered, resources become scarce and humanity fell into conflict over what was left. Some hundred or so years after the collapse, the only way society continues to function is by strict population control. Natural reproduction is banned, everyone is presumably sterilised, and the only way to have a child is with state approval and science.

Assessor Virginia (Alicia Vikander) arrives at the couple’s home to carry out the assessment – a testing period that will consist of seven days of her intrusively observing each and every moment of their lives, taking biological samples, and putting them in scenarios that will push the couple to absolute breaking point. With no prior warning of what the assessment will consist of, Mia and Aaryan are thrown from one bizarre scenario to another.

It’s a genuinely fresh and inventive sci fi with impressive world building, the screenplay slowly showing us hints and slips of how dark this world is without any clunky chunks of exposition or needless paragraphs of title cards. (Minnie Driver does show up at one point purely to give a clunky chunk of exposition – but her brief role is an absolute hoot so it really doesn’t feel like it disrupts the subtlety of the story.)

The performances are brilliant all round. Olsen is back to the absolute woman-on-the-edge best we first spotted from her in Martha Marcy May Marlene. It’s thrilling to see her back in these diverse roles after nearly a decade of only being known for the MCU. Patel is also excellent for his own part, but it’s the alchemy between the two women that steals the show.

Virginia is an absolutely unhinged character for Vikander, who performs her with whirlwind glee. A chaotic force of nature whose motivations seem to be constantly oscillating, she is as captivating as she is terrifying. For a chunk of the assessment Virginia acts like a child in order to test the couple, and the bond that Vikander and Olsen manage to portray as ‘mother and child’ while still being their two grown selves feels genuine and surprisingly tender.

This dark future suggests a lot to mull over here, with musings on the absolute terror of climate change, and the ease with which classism and elitism will no doubt at some point be used as a solution to our overpopulation and resource crises. It’s all wrapped up in a stylish package, atmospherically shot and smartly designed by Fortune and her cinematographer Magnus Nordenhof Jønck.

The Assessment does feel like it has one too many codas at the end, an unnecessary need to expand upon and wrap up each and every plot thread when it would have been more satisfying to be left with some element of mystery. Nevertheless, this is a beautifully crafted and performed sci fi thriller with some really fascinating ideas at its centre. An exciting debut from Fortune who marks herself as one to look out for.

The Assessment is playing as part of the BFI London Film Festival 2024. It is slated to be released on Prime Video in early 2025