Personal Shopper Summary and Review - Shopping for the Living, Listening for the Dead
Having seen no small measure of praise for Personal Shopper, I went in not sure what to expect in the way of a relationship between haute couture and the afterlife. In any event, I was expecting more than I found - there's slow burn with simmering tension and then there's just slow - and this was the latter.
An American in Paris
We meet Maureen (Kristen Stewart), a young American living in Paris and working as a personal shopper for Kyra, a demanding supermodel, in a job she clearly hates. She’s grieving for her twin brother, Lewis and her boyfriend is away in Oman, leaving her in sorrowful isolation. Maureen is also a psychic medium who visits her childhood home in the hope of contacting Lewis and fulfilling the pledge they made to each other - that when one dies, they will try to contact the other from beyond. This mission doubles as a job: she’s tasked with determining if the house has a “presence” by the potential buyers, though the rationale for why she was asked to undertake this isn't made clear.
A chance conversation pulls Maureen into researching the work of Hilma af Klint, a spiritualist artist, as she delves into séances and the afterlife - all while picking her way through her boss’s demands, an encounter with the slightly sinister Ingo and agonising over contact with her brother.
Halfway through, the narrative pivots towards a stalker subplot where Maureen receives anonymous texts probing her psyche and trying to manipulate her. In time, this culminates in a shocking event that shines an unwanted spotlight on Maureen and seemingly makes an unexpected link between the two strands of the narrative.
Here's Where it Starts to Unravel
So far, so mysterious but but this is where the film starts to unravel.
There are a number of themes in Personal Shopper - grief, self-doubt, search for identity, the existence of the afterlife - and this is where it gets into difficulties. Olivier Assayas shows ambition by combining multiple elements but this is always a tough ask and ultimately, the integration is ineffective with the themes sitting awkwardly alongside each other.
Despite the tragic loss at its heart, the film never fully establishes the depth of the bond between the brother and sister. Lewis is spoken about by others but we are never treated to previous interactions between the twins or Maureen describing her loss. Without this foundation, her grief feels abstract rather than gut-wrenching.
The stalker element adds frisson to the supernatural horror - is he or she from this world or the spirit world? - but again, this just isn't engaging enough and the exchange of text messages between Maureen and the stalker becomes repetitive instead of gripping. There's some ghostly activity which tickles the hairs on the back of the neck rather than making them stand-up, but little in the way of tension powering the fear factor.
And The Good Points
There are cinematic pleasures too, as Maureen zips around Paris on her moped and hops on the Eurostar: elegant shots of city streets, London landmarks, and even the inside of Cartier, all framed against the high-end fashion and accessories she selects and collects for Kyra.
Perhaps there were subtleties contained within the narrative that I missed but by the time the film reached its ambiguous ending, I had long since stopped caring. Personal Shopper aims to be part ghost story, part thriller, part meditation on grief but, much like Kyra’s garments, the narrative is less a tight weave than a loose mesh - stylish to look at, but offering little real coverage. This could work if the the story grips you, but for me, Personal Shopper just doesn't land its punches.
Rating: 2/5
Maureen Cartwright: Kristen StewartKyra (the supermodel): Nora von Waldstätten
Ingo: Lars Eidinger
Erwin: Anders Danielsen Lie
Gary (Maureen’s boyfriend): Ty Olwin
Writer & Director: Olivier Assayas
Year of Release: 2016
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