Personal Shopper

Another movie where Kristen Stewart plays Kristen Stewart. I mean, come on; the gal can't act to save her life and yet everyone seems to be oblivious to the fact. The script is bad. Some lines are downright ridiculous, and the screenwriter seems to have been blind to the thin line between intriguing unanswered questions and plot holes. If you are willing to fill in the gaps with your imagination, though, and you don't mind the excruciatingly slow pace, you may enjoy the movie.

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 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.

Personal Shopper is pretty straightforward and the ending concretizes it: Kristen Stewart projects her malevolent existence outward and it manifests as ghostly images, sounds, moving objects, and texts which draw out her insecurities. There are secondary plot elements that are less important and some thematic touches on how technology creates isolation, but they are thin and stats quo for today. The movie draws you along until the end reveal and then you realize it was pretty empty like the message it conveyed.

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