Personal Shopper (2016)

Review

105min

Genre:       Drama, Mystery

Director:    Olivier Assayas

Cast:         Kristen Stewart, Lars Eidinger, Sigrid Bouaziz…and more

Writer:      Olivier Assayas

-Synopsis-

Kristen Stewart stars as a young American working in the Parisian fashion industry as a personal shopper for a high profile celebrity, whose efforts to connect with her recently deceased twin brother from the beyond the grave put her on a mysterious path of self-reflection, in a supernatural mystery drama from French writer/director Olivier Assayas (Summer Hours, Carlos).

Having built a cinematic career out of exploring every recess of the human condition in multiple languages—through dramas, thrillers and even the biographical with ‘Carlos’—Assayas reunites with his new English-speaking young muse and turns to the subtly supernatural for his mysterious and unconventional meditation on loss and grief . . . wrapped in a solemn modern ghost story.

Stewart stars as self-professed medium ‘Maureen’, working as a glorified fashion assistant in a run-around job she hates, for a pampered and demanding celebrity fashionista she dislikes—the infamous ‘Kyra’ (Nora von Waldstätten)—and whose only cause to remain in Paris is to try and somehow re-connect with her dead twin brother. When a mysterious person begins to contact her, Maureen’s daily life takes an unexpected turn towards self-reflection, as the mundane begins to meets the unexplained . . . with unintended and perhaps sinister consequences.

If you’re not familiar with the work of Olivier Assayas and are expecting a standard supernatural ghost story, or a traditional mystery horror/thriller, you might be disappointed to find a more nuanced and pensive proposition. ‘Personal Shopper’ flows through an unconventional narrative which sometimes forsakes straight cause-and-effect storytelling for unexplained ‘happenings’, which are often only connected by the fact that they all happen to ‘Maureen’—leaving the audience questioning the whos, whats and whys of the story . . . long after the credits roll.

Despite the unconventional flow and some abstract and all too convenient contrivances—like the overuse of mobile communications, which makes this seem like filmmaking by text at times— Assayas manages to just about balance everything out and give us a gripping and misdirecting thriller, which ultimately serves to spice up what ‘Personal Shopper’ really is . . . an unorthodox but reflective character drama.

‘Personal Shopper’ is the second Olivier Assayas film in which Kristen Stewart plays an American assistant to a European celebrity —after 2014’s ‘Clouds of Sils Maria’—but this time she takes centre stage in what is for the most part a one-hander, at least when it comes to character exposition and development. Assayas cleverly uses mystery and suspense to bring ‘Maureen’ out of her shell and explore her loneliness and disillusionment with her ‘career’, but moreover the complexities of her grief over the loss of her brother, who may not be completely gone. Stewart delivers a subtle and restrained yet emotionally (and physically) bare performance, which goes some way towards justifying the reputation she’s accrued in recent years . . . particularly in European cinema.

The decision to place the story in the world of tabloid glamour is not just a convenient method of projecting a particular perception of beauty on to the screen—or indeed giving the film a sense of style, which it does—but it’s a deliberate juxtaposition of the materialism and meaninglessness of fashion and celebrity, against the intangible and ethereal nature of the death and the human soul, or the other-worldly and everlasting.

If you’re looking for a traditional character drama or a recognisable supernatural thriller, ‘Personal Shopper’ can be a bit of a frustrating experience. Mainly thanks to its fluctuating momentum, alarming elements of high drama and tension which ultimately prove to be almost inconsequential to the central story, and Assayas’ refusal to answer the most important questions—leaving the audience hanging with an ambiguous ending, and the meaning of the whole thing in the eye of the beholder. But if you’re open to something a little off-kilter, ‘Personal Shopper’ is a captivating human drama ghost-story about coming to terms with loss and letting go of the dead—in the knowledge that there’s really no such thing as ’emotional closure’.

The Bottom Line…

Unconventional, frustrating, abstract and ambiguous, Olivier Assayas’ second collaboration with Kristen Stewart is elevated above its shortcomings thanks to its star’s best performance to date and an introspective blend of interesting themes. The result is a captivating mystery and subtle ghost story, wrapped around a character drama which stylishly deals with grief and loss, keeping the audience guessing throughout . . . and long after.

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