Movie Review: The Assessment

 

Michael's Movie Grade: B+

An excellent sci-fi film. 

This movie has a wonderful premise. It takes place in a dystopian future where childbirth is not allowed unless a couple passes a series of tests known as the assessment. 

This film takes good advantage of this high concept premise. This is a smart well thought out movie that will keep you thinking long after the credits. This is especially true due to the very intelligent twist in the last act (which I dare not give away here). This is everything a third act plot twist should be. It makes perfect sense in the context of the story but also makes you have to rethink and reevaluate everything that came before. After this twist most of what came before takes on a whole new meaning but one that ultimately makes sense. This twist also leads to a very emotionally impactful ending.

Even before this twist the movie is very gripping. This film goes back and forth from being very fun to watch to purposely testing the patience of anyone watching. Yet the scenes that test your patience actually do serve their purpose and make it so that you are forced to experience the film from the point of view of our main characters. This movie also excels in world building. While the sci-fi world here holds similarities to other sci-fi worlds we have seen, it also feels very real to us because we grow a basic understanding of how such a world functions. One of the most important elements as to why this film works is because of the performances by Elizabeth Olsen, Alicia Vikander and Himesh Patel. All of them are truly magnetic here and keep your eyes glued to the screen. 

This is the first feature film for director Fleur Fortune. Fortune has previously mostly worked on music videos. His music video experience shows here as he proves himself to be an excellent visual stylist. This whole film is absolutely beautiful to look at. However, at times this can be a double edge sword. There are multiple scenes where the visuals look wonderful but distract from more than add to the story. 

While I am not a prude, I did feel that this film went much further than necessary with one sex scene. This scene felt not only gratuitous but uncomfortable to watch. Yet the movie would have worked just as well without this scene. It simply seems to be there for shock value and little else. 

Despite any flaws, this is a very intelligent and thought-provoking movie.