Director – Fleur Fortune, Screenplay – John Donnelly & Mr & Mrs Thomas [Nell Garfath Cox & Dave Thomas], Producers – Julie Goldstein, Grant S. Johnson, Elizabeth Karlsen, EliJonas Katzenstein, Maximilian Leo, Shivani Rawat & Stephen Woolley, Photography – Magnus Jønck, Music – Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch, Visual Effects Supervisor – Rolf Mütze, Visual Effects – Lava Labs Moving Images, Special Effects Supervisor – Pau Costa, Special Effects – CFX Spezialeffekte GmbH (Supervisor – Andre Makossa), Production Design – Jan Houllevigue. Production Company – Woolley-Karlsen/Number 9 Films/Augenschein Filmproduktion/Shivhans Pictures/Project Infinity/So Near to Paradise Films/Tiki Tane Pictures.
Cast
Alicia Vikander (Virginia/Grace), Elizabeth Olsen (Mia Gray), Himesh Patel (Aaryan), Minnie Driver (Evie), Charlotte Ritchie (Serena), Nicholas Pinnock (Walter), Leah Harvey (Holly), Anaya Thorley (Amelia), Indira Varma (Voice of Sjohus/Ambika)
Plot
It is the future where society is recovering from assorted catastrophes. This has necessitated the eradication of all animals and where giving birth is strictly controlled by the state. Husband Aaryan, a designer of virtual pets, and wife Mia, a botanist, receive a visit from Virginia, who has been sent to assess their suitability for parenthood. The cold and aloof Virginia is to move into their house for the next seven days where every aspect of their lives is to be examined. They feel uncomfortable with some of the demands Virginia makes, including intrusive questions and observing them having sex. Virginia then begins to play-act childlike behaviours that become increasingly more defiant and chaotic in order to test their reactions, but this creates havoc in the household.
The Assessment was a feature-length directorial debut for Fleur Fortune, who has been working since the start of the 2010s directing music video and commercials. The film played at a number of international film festivals and accrued several awards.
Amid these, The Assessment comes with a minimally sketched out future scenario. (Almost the entirety of the film takes place in a single house and surrounding area, venturing out beyond in only a couple of scenes). We get intriguing hints of a world where there has been some type of ecological catastrophe, where pets have been culled, where parts of the world are an uninhabitable post-apocalyptic wasteland and it is necessary to exact strict population control with the titular assessment, but there are no wider details other than allusions littered in the background. One of the most appealing touches is Himesh Patel’s ongoing attempts throughout to create lifelike holographic simulations of pets and children.
Prospective parents Himesh Patel and Elizabeth OlsenAlicia Vikander as Virginia, The Assessor
We are introduced to prospective couple Elizabeth Olsen and Himesh Patel. An unrecognisable Alicia Vikander then enters the house as the assessor, her hair primly bound back and looking for all the world like a traditional stern schoolmarm. The questions and her insistently intrusive manner prove off-putting to Elizabeth and Himesh. This is followed by a bizarre scene where we see Alicia sitting at the table, having gone from stern and very serious to behaving like a petulant child and pushing her food away and then it throwing it at them. It is such a bewilderingly abrupt shift you wonder what on Earth is going on.
The Assessment comes in total deadpan with no direct explanations given for why Alicia Vikander is acting thus, although you do gradually realise that she is play-acting being a child to test their reactions. However, when you get to sections with her calling Himesh Patel ‘daddy’, crawling into bed between the two of them, throwing increasingly unruly tantrums, even drowning herself on the beach, you wonder where the film is going with all of this. It is an incredibly indulgent performance that Vikander is allowed to give but it works with and suits the film.
There is the completely chaotic dinner party scene, which throws in a great performance from Minnie Driver, which comes with biting interplay as Alicia misbehaves, crawls under the table and sits in Minnie’s lap. And then there is the scene where she climbs into bed with Himesh Patel and in effect rapes him. At times, all this has an awfulness as you sit glued to watching things go as utterly sideways as they possibly can. It all comes in perfect deadpan. In the final sections, the entire house is brought down in ruins. The epilogue maybe draws you out of that and spells things out a little too directly but otherwise it works perfectly.
