Deciding whether you’re ready to become a parent is hard enough. Having someone decide for you is even harder, especially when that person is a representative of the state who makes you jump through all kinds of crazy hoops without needing to explain her reasoning.
Such is the vexing premise of “The Assessment,” a dystopian sci-fi drama from Fleur Fortuné. The first feature from the longtime music video director has a ton of style, and signals from the beginning her confident use of framing, texture and color.
An overhead shot of a young woman swimming alone in the sparkly blue of the ocean suggests both freedom and danger. The minimalist home where married scientists Mia (Elizabeth Olsen) and Aaryan (Himesh Patel) live sprouts from a hilltop amid rugged, windswept terrain. And everything and everyone exists beneath the protection of a clear, undulating dome, as if they all got trapped inside a jellyfish.
It’s the near future. Some sort of climate disaster has occurred, forcing people to start over in spartan fashion, which sounds bleak but it’s preferable to the devastation of the Old World. Mia and Aaryan would seem to have it all, relatively. Their work is fulfilling: He creates lifelike virtual pets, since real animal companions have been outlawed, while she focuses on developing plant life. An omniscient, Alexa-like voice caters to their every need. And yet amid their tasteful, neutral home, with its pops of bright color and striking, Mondrian-inspired windows, something is missing: a child.
That’s where Alicia Vikander comes in as Virginia, the assessor who will decide their fate within the government’s strict population limits. She explains matter-of-factly that she must move in for a week and observe everything about their lives—and that means everything. With her tight, center-part bun and prim schoolmarm garb, Virginia seems at first like a stoic and withholding figure. But her demeanor changes as she puts the couple through a variety of challenges to prove their capability as parents. Vikander uses her physicality as a longtime dancer convincingly here, as she did in Alex Garland’s chilling 2014 thriller “Ex Machina.” She gets a little weird, and that’s a lot of fun. Her demands are both hilarious and horrifying, driving a wedge between husband and wife, turning their ordeal into a suburban version of “Squid Game.”
The script from Dave Thomas & Nell Garfath Cox (credited as Mr. & Mrs. Thomas) and John Donnelly spells out the rules just enough to help us understand how society reached this point. The cinematography from Magnus Jønck and the production design from Jan Houellevigue work beautifully in tandem to create a chilly, mysterious vibe. But at the center are the performances from these three people who are constantly surprising and destabilizing each other.
The evolving connection between the spiky Olsen and the confounding Vikander is especially fascinating, alternating as it does between petulance and affection, reflecting the real-life tension that can fester between mothers and daughters. Both actresses are up for the range required of their roles, making slight, nuanced tweaks as the week progresses. The interactions between Vikander and Patel’s nice-guy, would-be dad are even more fraught with peril, morphing from twisted humor to legitimate suspense.
But the highlight of “The Assessment” is the contrived dinner party Virginia arranges to see how the couple acts in social situations. A sharp-tongued Minnie Driver makes this soiree deliciously awkward, simply by telling the truth about parenthood when everyone else is struggling to be polite.
Where the film falters, though, is in its third act. There was no need to spell out people’s motivations so plainly, and maintaining the mystery behind this rigid setting would have been more compelling. A final scene between Vikander and Olsen is well-acted—how could it not be with these two fascinating actresses performing opposite each other—but it also feels unnecessary.
