The Assessment Movie Review: A Harrowing Challenge of Parenthood
Letting someone else control your decisions to have a child, and that too, a government official, is terrorizing enough.
Letting someone else control your decisions to have a child, and that too, a government official, is terrorizing enough. This is what Mia and Aaryan are going through in the recently released The Assessment by a feature-length debut director.
Here is our version of The Assessment movie review with major details of the filmmaking process and performance of the stars. The post will help you decide whether to skip it or buy a ticket for instant entertainment.
The Assessment movie plot
In our previous article, we gave an overview of the film’s plot but for revisiting purposes, Mia (played by Elizabeth Olsen) and Aaryan (played by Himesh Patel) have to undergo a mysterious and grisly assessment to become eligible for the right to have a child.
The idea itself is quite disturbing where a married couple does not have the freedom to have a child. In a dystopian setting and a not-so-distant future, the unpredictable evaluator Virginia (played by Alicia Vikander) comes to stay at their place. Watch this exclusive clip from the film, now in theatres:
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In a world where climate conditions are challenged and the government is devising strict policies for population control, the survival of what is left is disputed. A rigorous seven-day assessment is mandatory for the couple to determine whether they are apt enough to bring a child into a dying world.
Bringing a new life to an already broken world is a tough decision. The thought-provoking dystopian sci-fi thriller thus gives us a haunting question with an exploration of the devastating reality of parenthood in a place where the future is uncertain.
Director’s vision of the film
Earlier, we talked about Fleur Fortune’s struggles with her own pregnancy and how, as soon as the script of The Assessment reached her, she got the good news of her life.
While talking to LRM Online, she shed light on the filmmaking process. She revealed that she wanted the general feel of the film to be daunting. She wanted to make it “feel like we are in a prison, in a cell, in that frame of the house.”
She explained there is a big difference in what the characters feel inside and outside. The director related her own thoughts strongly to the film’s conception since she opened up about how she felt during those six years of her struggle with IVF pregnancy trials. It was the time when she thought to herself why it was so important to have that child and what she wanted for the child’s future.
Elizabeth Olsen, Alicia Vikander, Himesh Patel’s performance in the film
Olsen brings softness to her character of Mia who portrays a woman yearning for a new life in her arms. She wants to say lullabies and nurture a whole new world in front of her, which she thinks would strengthen her relationship with Aaryan.
Her performance shows clearly the weight of her internal struggles and the burden of government policies in times of distress.
Patel as Aaryan is exceptional too since he is a person jammed in between a desire to grow his family and a highbrow fixation with synthetic replicas of life.
Virginia, Vikander’s role, is both intimidating and intriguing. She symbolizes cold authority from the government’s side with somewhat quirky behavioral contradictions. Not only her character, but her mere presence with the uncomfortable tests create a bizarre atmosphere in the film.
Her role was most interesting as she slid effortlessly between the rigid and robotic self-enactment of a government official on one hand while being someone with childlike characteristics who questions her own role in the system on the other.
Roger Ebert’s review mentioned her performance as:
“She gets a little weird, and that a lot of un. Her demands are both hilarious and horrifying, driving a wedge between husband and wife, turning their ordeal into a suburban version of ‘Squid Game’.”
What do critics add to the The Assessment movie review?
The Hollywood Reporter mentioned the film as a wholesome take on parenthood in confusing times. It wrote:
“The Assessment becomes a gripping psychological chamber drama about the ego surrender of parenthood.”
Variety cited it as “a smart, stripped down sci-fi parable about parenting”. It also commended Fortune’s style of direction as the dystopian future gave her the edge of showcasing her “visual stylist” creativity. The ingenious writing from Mrs. & Mr. Thomas and John Donnelly paints an extra coat of ingeniousness, which was greatly needed to verify the husband-wife relationship intricacies through the whole process.
Most of the critics’ reviews on Rotten Tomatoes are impressive. Overall critics’ consensus remarks:
“A stimulating sci-fi that invests its high concept into ideas rather than special effects, The Assessment puts a trio of superb performances under a microscope and invites the audience to join in the scrutiny.”
One of the best scenes is the bath scene where Mia gives Virginia’s child-like character a bath, on which Vikander disclosed some interesting details to The Hollywood Reporter.
She said it was the scene where both characters formed a connection; Mia appeared to be a mom while Virginia her child. It was a deep angle that the director formed in her mind before filming the actual thing as one saw something in another person, entirely relatable, forming a silent comfort and understanding.
Fans reaction
Not many reviews are available online at the time of writing as the film has just been released but with less than 50 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. Several positive responses were seen in the general users’ review section, with most ratings between 4 and 4.5 stars.
One of the reviews said,
“Elizabeth Olsen and Alicia Vikander deliver phenomenal performances. This was a great dystopian sci-fi thriller, and had me constantly guessing what was coming next.”
Overall, the film is a pretty decent watch as it triggers some of the deepest anxieties of our time. The emotional complexities of the characters in the given circumstances reflect the strongest emotions: love, fear, and human connections for closest relations.
Is The Assessment available for streaming?
Currently, The Assessment (rated R) is only available in theatres across the United States. Since the movie is distributed by Magnolia Pictures and is not a Netflix original, it is not available on the platform right now.
Genre: Sci-fi, mystery, thriller, drama
IMDb rating: 7.2
Rotten Tomatoes: 83 percent on Tomatometer (critics’ score) at the time of writing, no score on Popcornmeter as yet
Cast: Elizabeth Olsen, Alicia Vikander, Himesh Patel, Minnie Driver, Indira Verma
Director: Fleur Fortune
Producer: Stephen Woolley
Writers: John Donnelly, Nell Garfath Cox, and Dave Thomas (aka Mrs. and Mr. Thomas)
Release date: March 21, 2025
Movie runtime: 1 hour 54 minutes
Have you watched The Assessment? What do you think of it? Let us know in the comments.
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