Personal Shopper

Maureen (Kristen Stewart) is a personal shopper for big time celebrity Kyra (Nora von Waldstatten). She also happens to be a medium that know how to communicate with spirits from the other world and refuses to leave Paris until she gets a sign from her recently departed brother Louis.

"Personal Shopper" is one endeavor in genre mix I had yet to see. The fusion of styles, ideas and cinematic traditions is fascinating and quite off putting at the start, yet it manages to entertain audiences with moments of true suspense and fascination even though it goes completely off the rails in trying to have any emotional impact or pay off.

The film is a mixing of genre as much as it is a mixing of styles. We get these long uninterrupted shots that stalk Maureen through the house which she believes she is haunted and juxtaposes it to scenes that you would expect to find in a dark fashion thriller. This combination admittedly does give the film an inherent interest that never leaves it. The first hour or so of the movie is quite captivating in how unapologetically it brings together these various elements lacing them together with a quite arrogant use of jump cuts which result in a smart idea to link the fantastic with the mundane.

Kristen Stewart is a very effective lead, she manages to paint layers of characterization onto this person and open up an emotional place that would have easily been lost in hands of lesser actors. Her work is probably why the suspense scenes work so well. It is amazing to see how in one moment you are following a fashion discussion and you're captivated by it and in the next one you're completely scared by an apparent ghost story.

Assayas definitely has to get some credit for the structure in which the horror scenes are built, whilst he has some major problems in tackling the genre, the scenes of suspense work perfectly because of a true mastery on the technical aspect. The elements introduced are synthetic and effective and they are juggled around in a perfect attempt at audience manipulation. Moreover he manages to get a couple of really amazing and suspenseful stable shots that I won't spoil, but really stick out as gems of the technical proficiency of the film.

Unfortunately there are many story points and and emotional beats of the film that have almost no context or relevance to character here. Assayas has many problems in building the supernatural and there is lots that is either left for blatant exposition or not explained at all and left in a weird place of misunderstanding. The closure of the picture suffers immensely from this and all of the fancy genre stuff does not come together in an ending that leaves the audience completely cold and clueless on what emotions to feel.

Overall the film has some very brave ideas and motifs, but the intention behind it leaves the audience scratching their head.

Those going into Personal Shopper expecting some type of straightforward narrative of an as per-usual glum Kristen Stewart going around trying on clothes and living the high living lifestyle will surely be disappointed by Olivier Assayas latest film, as this supernatural tinged thriller mystery is an anything but straightforward experience.

Winning the Best Director award at last year's Cannes Film Festival for this effort, Personal Shopper sees Assayas re-team with Stewart after their successful collaboration on Clouds of Sils Maria and the two artists have seemingly in the space of two films developed quite the artistic connection as Assayas assured hand behind the camera works seamlessly with Stewart, as her inwardly haunted Maureen Cartwright tries desperately to connect with her recently deceased twin brother Lewis, only to find herself in a potentially dangerous and possibly otherworldly situation.

Personal Shopper is almost unclassifiable and can't be pigeonholed into a specific genre as Assayas comfortably enters into horror/thriller territory as easily as he does drama/mystery as Maureen's experience with the world beyond our own makes itself more apparent and her dealings with an unknown "messenger" take hold of her increasingly complicated world.

Talking to much about Assayas's layered narrative would undo many of the films surprise's as we're constantly taken into routes we don't expect and it's highly plausible that Assayas's finale will be one of those cinematic endings that creates more than its fair share of heated online discussions and theories.

In saying this, Personal Shopper isn't an easily accessible film, its slowly paced and features a bunch of rather unlikeable characters but Assayas's ability to create mood and atmosphere can't be questioned while Stewart delivers one of her best turns as an adult lead as Maureen.

As if Twilight was but a sparkling distant memory, Stewart's brave and committed turn as the tormented Maureen holds the film together through some of its rougher patches and some of the scenarios/situations Assayas has asked his leading lady to be a part of could've easily gotten the better of lesser performers.

It might not be a turn that manifest's the haters into followers but there's little questioning Stewart's ability to play these certain roles she's become attributed to isn't amongst the best in the business today.

Final Say –

A truly original piece of filmmaking that isn't made for mass appeal and a work of art that doesn't always hit the high notes it intended to, Personal Shopper is a film like we've never seen before and an unnerving experience that will likely stay with you after the credits have rolled; if you happen to be one of the few that had been transfixed by Maureen's experiences with the forces we have yet to understand.

3 ½ dropped glasses out of 5

I don't know much about ghost stories, but I have been gravitating to them of late. This one is the most realistic one I have run into so far. A woman's twin-brother has passed away and she is preoccupied with an oath they had made, whoever dies first will try to pierce the divide and leave a sign for the other. There is a rather sadistic soundtrack consisting of a free-floating sonar-like program but instead of underwater, we get a generalized array of ambient tracks from whatever locale our POV character happens to be at the time and at an extremely high decibel level. If the idea is to keep the viewer a little on edge, it succeeds. There is an extraordinarily realistic visitation scene which frightens. There is a sequence where an unknown texter is harassing the survivor, which under the circumstances, is more than a little eerie.

The denouement is predictably unclear except perhaps for especially perceptive viewers of which I do not belong. But an explanation is there that seems quite convincing (I had to read it from a review) which I give the movie credit for. It's not just a scary story that leads nowhere.

I normally like when arthouse touches on horror but this piece of crap didn't do anything for me. Neither as a drama nor a genrefilm.

And the 30 minute scene of Kirsten Stewart texting is by far the most laughable non-cinematic experience I've ever had. The director needs o go back to film school.

I have to admit that Kristen Stewart's performance makes up 80% of the entire movie. She actually manages to transfer feelings to others without even needing to open her mouth. The plot is unusual and interesting, the atmosphere tastes exactly like Europe. Overall, a good movie!