A sterile drama about state-controlled procreation, “The Assessment,” the first feature from the French director Fleur Fortuné, is visually stark and emotionally chilling. From the elegant severity of Jan Houllevigue’s production design to Magnus Jonck’s coolly unwelcoming cinematography, the movie repels warmth. By the end, you’ll want nothing so much as a woolly jumper.
In a future dystopia, two married scientists, Mia and Aaryan (Elizabeth Olsen and Himesh Patel), live and work in their isolated seaside home. Aaryan designs virtual pets (the state has exterminated the real ones, presumably to conserve resources), while Mia experiments with sustainable methods of food production. Work, however, is not enough, and the couple wants a child — a desire that requires a weeklong assessment of their suitability as parents.
Enter Virginia (a brilliantly creepy Alicia Vikander), the assessor who will subject them to an escalating program of mental and physical torment. Prim and impassive, she spies on them having sex and collects their body fluids, and her horrifying role-playing as a bratty toddler would make even the broodiest wife rethink her options. As Virginia’s behavior grows increasingly intrusive and even sinister, dislodging secrets that will shake Mia and Aaryan’s marriage, “The Assessment” builds to a baffling act of pointless destruction.
Virginia has her own motivations, but the movie’s last-ditch attempt to absolve the character, and reveal the world beyond her repellent games, proves too little, too late. Prioritizing aesthetics over narrative, the film offers only superficial hints of a society riven by class and authoritarian politics: The wealthy enjoy artificially extended life spans beneath an invisible dome, while the rest inhabit an “old world” of deprivation and disease. Consequently, “The Assessment” — much like a brutally honest centenarian (an awesome Minnie Driver) whom Virginia invites to dinner — is much easier to respect than to love.
The post ‘The Assessment’ Review: Meticulously Planned Parenthood appeared first on New York Times.
