‘The Assessment’ Review: Alicia Vikander and Elizabeth Olsen Test Each Other in a Smart, Stripped Down Sci-Fi Parable About Parenting
variety.comStephen Saito Aaryan (Himesh Patel) spends much of “The Assessment” fiddling with skin, having developed a tactile virtual simulation of an animal to replace the creatures that were sacrificed in a near-extinction level event some time prior.
The flesh is too tough sometimes, too synthetic at others, but he’s certainly onto something and it’s hard not to feel the same way about the sci-fi candy coating on Fleur Fortuné’s strong, darkly amusing feature is.
In fact, the debut, which launched with a world premiere at the Toronto International Festival, is so idiosyncratic that it might’ve been even better if it had dropped its genre trappings entirely.
But removing that dystopian future could deprive Fortuné of such a convincing showcase for him as a clearly gifted visual stylist and the license for some knockout production design from Jan Houllevigue and a bold score from Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch, both of which organically suggest how a world increasingly devoid of humanity has made it all the more important for those alive to leave an impression with handmade touches throughout.
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