Personal Shopper (2016)

Starring: Kristen Stewart, Lars Eidinger, Sigrid Bouaziz

Director: Olivier Assayas

What an enigmatic little film.

Kristen Stewart stars as Maureen, a young woman who works as a personal shopper and who refuses to leave Paris since her twin brother died. She believes that he’ll get a message to her from the other side, as they both had some gifts as psychic mediums, but she’s still waiting. Her boyfriend wants her to move on, and she really dislikes her wealthy and famous boss in Paris, but she just feels that she can’t go until she has some kind of sign.

She returns to the house her brother and his girlfriend lived in and talks to her boyfriend in the US on the phone, and all the while she senses a dark presence but nothing solid. Until she starts to get mysterious text messages. What’s really going on? Is she imagining things? Is her twin connecting with her over the phone or is there something more sinister at work?

Although it’s a ghost story, if you go into this film expecting something traditional, you’re not going to find it. It’s a film of small mysteries and sadness, a study of those left behind. At the same time, it’s incredibly eerie and at moments it really gets under your skin, but it’s not about the jump scare or the thrills. It’s about tension, about holding on, about what we call up in grief. It’s not a seance movie, but it does talk about seances. It’s not a straight drama either, but it’s full of the drama of relationships and death. It walks a line confidently but carefully, and therefore feels very original.

Of course, it all rests on the shoulders of Kristen Stewart who plays the films’ central role. She feels like a natural to play someone who knows her way around Dior and Cartier, and who can make dressing like a homeless person look quite chic and ironic. She also happens to be a natural at playing a desperate, lonely twin left behind and grieving. Someone locked into denial and sadness until something from another world can release her. Gone are the days of playing vampires girlfriends, Kristen Stewart is more and more often showing a flexibility and vulnerability, and another indefinable quality that’s just her, that makes her one of the finer actresses out there. If you don’t believe me, try this film out.

See It If: you’ve ever struggled with your grief or if you’ve ever thought their might be life after death, it’s a beautiful and strange film. Also might please fashion lovers.