Olivier Assayas’ “Personal Shopper”

Personal Shopper (2016)

A fresh genre blending story of grief, its ensuing loneliness and questioning of the world

Potentially the most obtuse title ever given to a film in the horror genre. This ghost story follows Maureen Cartwright(a career best performance from Kristen Stewart) who recently lost her twin brother with whom she had a pact; whoever dies first will reach out to the other from the afterlife. Living in Paris, in addition to being medium like her brother, Maureen works as a personal shopper for Kyra, a celebrity with a notorious reputation for controlling behaviour and narcissism. Added to that is that her brother died of a heart defect which she shares.

At times, the film does have a lot in common with Japanese cinematic ghost stories while at others Polanski’s thrillers and Cronenberg dramas which can be jarring at times as it switches between genres but Stewart’s central performance does a good job of sewing these all together and holding the film together. I would also argue that there is flex in terms of explaining some of the events of the film which makes it far more interesting than it would otherwise have been.

With themes of grief, its ensuing loneliness, materialism, aspiration, it’s mostly successful with a terrific central performance.