“The Assessment” (2024 production, 2025 release). Cast: Elizabeth Olsen, Himesh Patel, Alicia Vikander, Minnie Driver, Nicholas Pinnock, Charlotte Ritchie, Leah Harvey, Anaya Thorley, Indira Varma (voice). Director: Fleur Fortuné. Screenplay: Nell Garfath Fox (a.k.a. Mrs. Thomas), Dave Thomas (a.k.a. Mr. Thomas) and John Donnelly. Web site. Trailer.

It often feels like we’re constantly being assessed, evaluated on everything from our creditworthiness to our work performance to our scholastic achievements. But imagine what it might be like if we were scrutinized on highly personal matters, with intrusive investigations into our most highly intimate concerns. Is it worth putting ourselves through such intrusive and potentially intensive inquiries? Is the payoff for allowing ourselves to be subjected to such treatment necessary? Those are the questions raised in the new social sci-fi thriller, “The Assessment.”

In a dystopian version of Earth of the future, the planet has been devastated by environmental decline. As a consequence, human society has been drastically reorganized into “the Old World” and “the New World.” The former is a pathetic wasteland, where individuals struggle to live out short lives under horrific conditions. The latter, meanwhile, is a sanctuary for the fortunate, with clean air, clean water and a comfortable way of life. But there’s a trade-off for the privilege of living in the New World: Residents must abide by a litany of stringent laws, rules and regulations for which they’re under constant assessment (including in matters of their so-called private lives) where the risk of being reassigned to the Old World looms for even the smallest of violations.

This intensive scrutiny involves essentially everything, including such basic considerations as the ability to have children. Because resources are scarce in the New World, the population must be carefully controlled to avoid their depletion, and authorities have deemed it necessary that only those who are considered truly worthy of the privilege of becoming parents be allowed to do so. It’s a strictly regulated undertaking for which parental candidates are placed under rigorous testing and scrutiny by government-appointed assessors to evaluate their qualifications for assuming this role.

So it is for Mia (Elizabeth Olsen) and Aaryan (Himesh Patel), a couple looking to become among the few who are granted the right to have a family. They’re among the fortunate few to make it to the final round of evaluation, an intensive examination in which they’re placed under the microscope by their assessor, Virginia (Alicia Vikander). The evaluator takes up residence with the couple for a week to scrutinize their suitability, engaging in rounds of intensive questioning, role-playing exercises and other unannounced tests to see if they meet the requisite standards.

But are Mia and Aaryan up to the challenge? The process tests the limits of the couple’s coping abilities and pushes the envelope of their tolerance levels for the circumstances imposed on them, all in the name (supposedly) of determining whether they would make acceptable parents. This becomes particularly apparent when Virginia begins acting out as a rambunctious child, testing the couple’s ability to deal with a perpetually unruly brat. Mia and Aaryan are thus forced into confronting whether their desire to become parents is strong enough to contend with a possibility as troubling and confounding as this. Through this patience-trying role-playing exercise (not just for the characters, but at times for viewers as well), they constantly worry that, if they show any signs of intolerance toward the behavior of their “child,” it will take them out of the running to be selected to become parents. Talk about pressure.

But, as the week wears on, the assessment grows even more intense and dubious. In addition to evaluating the couple’s potential parenting skills, Mia and Aaryan are put through what essentially amount to tests of character, examining their capacities for traits like integrity, fidelity and truthfulness. For instance, secrets that they have never revealed to one another are unceremoniously exposed, disclosures that threaten the viability of their relationship, regardless of whether they’re chosen to become parents. When faced with circumstances like that, not only do the merits of passing the parenthood test arise, but questions about the couple’s very future together begin to surface as well.

And, if all of this weren’t enough, as the evaluation unfolds, questions also emerge about Virginia. Who is she? Are her evaluation methods genuine, testing measures truly sanctioned by ruling authorities? Or is she carrying out some kind of cruel, sadistic joke? Virginia’s actions raise valid skepticism from Mia and Aaryan about whether she’s investigating issues that officials are really interested in knowing about when it comes to the two of them being approved for the question at hand. Indeed, are the assessment process and the assessor herself everything they appear to be? That’s what remains to be seen.  

Like it or not, assessments of all kinds seem to be part of our everyday lives. They can make or break us, depending on the nature and outcome of the evaluation. But does this leave us completely at their mercy? Are we powerless to have any impact on how they play out and ultimately affect us? That need not be the case. But, if we’re to come through assessments in ways to our liking, it helps considerably to understand what underlies them, and that’s the fact that they’re inherently based on beliefs. And that’s important given the role they play in the manifestation of our existence, a product of the conscious creation process, the philosophy that makes such results possible. It’s unclear how many of us are aware of or understand this school of thought, but it’s crucial that we make the effort to do so in light of the impact that they can have on the reality we experience, especially when assessments – and what they can yield – are at stake.

Fundamentally speaking, beliefs – and, consequently, assessments – are subjective in nature, even when supposedly objective considerations like scores, figures and other numerical elements are involved. Along with observational attributes, these factors combine to create impressions that go into formulating the underlying beliefs and resulting assessments. And those assessments, in turn, frequently provide the basis for making decisions in a wide array of applications, from job hiring to stage and screen casting to selecting mates and so on.

Some might still like to think that such outcomes are out of our hands. But that’s not necessarily true. How we conduct ourselves during an assessment – based on what we believe to be the considerations we need to address and convey at the time of evaluation – can have tremendous influence on the beliefs of the assessor. Ironically, this depends on us determining what we need to do at the time of assessment, which, in turn, rests with our evaluation of the screening process and the assessor, drawing upon our own beliefs about the evaluator to get on his or her good side in order to obtain a favorable rating. Just as the assessor will be formulating an opinion about how we act, how we appear and what we say, we must do the same when it comes to judging the evaluator and forming the beliefs we hold in return.

However, there are times when greater degrees of discernment, insight and awareness are called for when it comes to sizing up the assessments to which we’re subjected. And that’s apparent in this story. While it’s true that Mia and Aaryan genuinely want to become parents, there comes a point where they have to ask themselves, “Is what we’re being put through truly worth it?” Given the increasingly manipulative, oppressive and some would say humiliating treatment that’s being thrust upon them during their assessment, they can’t help but wonder if putting themselves through such intrusive and degrading conditions is called for simply to get the approval to have a child. Indeed, the couple must ask themselves, “What do we really believe about this?”

Many of us would probably agree that this kind of hard-nosed scrutiny isn’t worth the demeaning behavior that Mia and Aaryan experience. However, they must look to their beliefs and decide accordingly if the payoff is justified, especially since, given that this is the future and technologies have advanced, there are alternatives available to them. They might not take the form they anticipated when they embarked on this process, but the eventual outcome may not be far off the mark from what they hoped for. And, even if they elect not to pursue those options, there are still other valuable considerations that they should examine by going through this process.

Perhaps the most important of these is learning how to establish healthy boundaries for themselves. Reasonable assessments may be one thing, but what Mia and Aaryan must endure is something else entirely, treatment that many would believe should be summarily dismissed given the indignities, potential embarrassment and possible penalties involved. At some point, protecting one’s self-esteem and personal honor significantly outweighs whatever hoped-for outcomes might be realized, no matter how disappointing that may be and how difficult it could be to accept. But will the couple have the wisdom to engage in their own form of scrutiny and devise beliefs in line with questioning this thinking? At what point does safeguarding personal sovereignty take precedence over the dictates of the state and its minions in matters like this? That’s what Mia and Aaryan must come to discover for themselves, an example for us all to follow when faced with circumstances like these, regardless of what the ultimate sought-after objective might be. Assessments must be put into context in the end, but will Mia and Aaryan (or we) have the insight and courage to do so? If nothing else, that’s the takeaway from this film, one that we shouldn’t hesitate to put into practice when conditions warrant.

Director Fleur Fortuné’s inventive social sci-fi thriller raises an array of probing, thoughtful questions, both for the characters, as well as audience members, particularly where matters of personal privacy and societal judgment are concerned. The narrative is purposely designed to keep viewers guessing, placing them squarely in the shoes of the protagonists and nudging them to ask themselves what they would do under conditions like these. It’s an approach that generally keeps viewers hooked as the filmmaker’s debut feature plays out, despite some occasional lapses in pacing and a few sequences in which the action feels a little over the top (especially in some of the role-playing segments). But the payoff is ultimately worth it, one that makes us question whether the constant evaluations to which we’re subjected in today’s society are everything they’re allegedly cracked up to be. “The Assessment” is thus an intriguing examination of what we allow ourselves to be put through to see if we measure up to expectations that ultimately aren’t necessarily our own, particularly in matters that fundamentally aren’t anyone else’s business. Think about that the next time you feel you’re being unduly judged, a consideration that’s taken on new weight in today’s day and age – and that this cautionary tale might be giving us a preview of what could possibly lie ahead if we’re not careful. The film is available for streaming online.

In an age where we’re increasingly being asked – if not coerced – into being what others would want us to be, with the pressures of assessment being applied to do so, we run the risk of losing sight of our true selves, of who we would choose to be. This is why the need to scrutinize scrutiny is becoming increasingly significant. This is particularly true in a world where we’re being asked to engage in such behavior as a trade-off for certain privileges, considerations that have long been fought for and thought of as fundamental rights. And, if that’s something not worth serious and thoughtful evaluation, I don’t know what is.

Copyright © 2025, by Brent Marchant. All rights reserved.