Elizabeth Olsen And Alicia Vikander Star In Dystopian Parenthood Drama, The Assessment
What if you had to be given permission by the government to have children? That’s the creepy premise behind The Assessment, a new film starring Elizabeth Olsen (Love & Death), which arrives on streaming next month in the UK. Olsen plays a woman hoping to be a mother who, along with her partner, has to navigate the rules of a future dystopian society. Here’s all you need to know…
What is The Assessment about?
Olsen plays our main character, Mia, a woman living in a future that is not a bright and hopeful one: much of the planet has been ravaged and rendered uninhabitable by climate change. There are parts of Earth where pockets of humanity still remain, but everyone must conform to strict rules by those in charge. Mia and her significant other Aaryan (played by Himesh Patel) want to be able to have kids in this dreary world that they live in but are unable to do so unless they are given approval by the government. It’s not an easy process, however, both must satisfy the requirements of an “assessment” which is administered, and which scrutinises them to minute detail. In charge of theirs is Virgina (played by Alicia Vikander), who will live with them for a week as part of the process.
Both Mia and Aaryan accept the idea that they’ll have to be assessed, and given their respectable jobs of working in different branches of science, both appear poised to be successful. But Virginia becomes insistent on seeing every single aspect of their personal lives, no matter how intimate and personal, and begins to start setting tasks for the pair that she also takes part in. The increasingly maddening assessment begins to take a toll on both hopeful parents, and the two will start to question whether they truly want or are cut out for children. There are also questions raised about society at large, and whether anyone can really raise children the way they used to before everything changed. And is every part of this seven-day assessment meant to happen to everyone? Or is the unnerving and constantly needling Virginia doing things for her own gain and amusement? The less revealed, the better.
Who else stars, and is there a release date?
A number of other notable faces appear in the cast of the dystopian drama, including Indira Varma (Game of Thrones), Minnie Driver (The Beekeeper), Charlotte Ritchie (Ghosts), Nicholas Pinnock (The Book of Clarence) and Leah Harvey (Foundation). The Assessment is set to arrive on streaming on Amazon Prime on 8th May.
