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The Future is Under Review: A TIFF Review of ‘The Assessment’
September 15, 2024Ben MK
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From sci-fi parables that serve as a metaphor for classism in contemporary society to big-budget spectacles about climate disaster, the dystopian genre represents a wide-ranging and thematically rich category of films. Painting a bleak future for humanity while also providing moviegoers with entertaining stories to reflect on, the genre has always provided a medium for filmmakers to weave compelling narratives underscored by messages that are applicable to our everyday world. Whether it's a world gone to Hell because of a gas shortage or a society comprised entirely of people with low IQs, dystopian cinema runs the gamut from the action-packed to the laugh-out-loud. When it comes to the future of our species, however, is there any subject more fitting than human reproduction? Enter The Assessment, a tale that follows Mia (Elizabeth Olsen) and Aaryan (Himesh Patel), a married couple trying to make the most of a future where climate change has drastically altered the lives of the world's population. Forced to live under a giant dome that protects them from the toxic particles in the atmosphere, Mia keeps herself occupied by growing plants in her greenhouse, while Aaryan prefers to stay indoors, working in his lab on a scientific breakthrough involving lifelike virtual reality animals. When they decide the time has come for them to have a child, however, it marks the beginning of a seven-day journey that could make or break their relationship. Required by law to pass an assessment by a an official government assessor named Virginia (Alicia Vikander), the pair must spend the next week being observed, questioned and tested — their lives offered up to Virginia to examine in excruciating detail, in any way she pleases. What they never expected, though, is for Virginia to take a decidedly unorthodox and distinctly deranged approach to their assessment. Will all of this torture really be worth it in the end? Or does Virginia in fact have no intent of approving them for parenthood? Directed by Fleur Fortuné, the result is a thought-provoking look at the universal human desire to become a parent, as well as just how far some people will go to do so. What sets The Assessment apart from other dystopian dramas, however, isn't its premise or even the movie's deft balance of humor and sobriety, but the primal instincts and emotions that the story taps into. Whether you're a parent, a parent-to-be or have yet to even consider it, there's something undeniably relatable about the predicament of the film's characters. After all, we all have that one goal in our lives that we would go to the ends of the Earth to accomplish. It just so happens that, in this case, the goal has everything to do with the continued survival of the human race. |
The Assessment screens under the Special Presentations programme at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. Its runtime is 1 hr. 54 min.
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