Review: Alicia Vikander Stars In Futuristic Story Where Government Will Decide If You Are Qualified To Have Kids

Ignore fan trailer!

https://deadline.com/2024/09/the-assessment-review-science-fiction-alicia-vikander-elizabeth-olson-toronto-film-festival-1236081634/

In the case of French director Fleur Fortune’s feature debut, it is Alicia Vikander as Virginia, the cold-as-ice, all-business assessor who wears a uniform of sorts and has her hair tightly wound in a bun to indicate this is a woman who will not be messed with. She knocks on the door of the very sterile-looking modernistic home of Mia (Elizabeth Olsen) and Aaryan (Himesh Patel), a couple very much hoping to build a family and pass the government’s muster that they would be appropriate parents. At first it seems like a normal kind of interview, but as the days go by Virginia, channeling her inner improvisational actor, starts being essentially a bratty 2-year-old even though this is a grown woman playing this all out and clearly testing the patience of our auditioning couple. Will they be able to cope with this as the Virginia show grows more and more intense as the week progresses? And that includes a dinner party in which guests are invited so she can observe how they might handle a child in such a situation.