Personal Shopper Movie Review (Spoiler Free)

A pseudo-psychological drama, masked as a ghost tale. Personal Shopper unpacks a lot, yet leaves too much lying on the playing field without really saying anything. 

Genre: Drama / Mystery / Thriller

Director: Olivier Assayas

Cast: Kristen Stewart, Sigrid Bouaziz, Ty Olwin, Lars Eidinger, Audrey Bonnet, Benjamin Biolay, Hammou Graïa, Anders Danielsen Lie, & Nora Waldstätten.

Run Time: 105 min.

US Release: 10 March 2017

UK Release: 17 March 2017

German Release: 19 January 2017

From French filmmaker Olivier Assayas comes this supernatural psychological thriller, a European co-production among Belgium, France, Germany, and the Czech Republic. It competed for the Palme d’Or at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, with Assayas sharing Best Director with Cristian Mungiu. As such, I was expecting much from Personal Shopper; regrettably, those expectations haven’t been met, as I left the theatre deeply disappointed. The premise had all the right pieces set up, yet never truly uses any of them.

Maureen (Stewart) is an American living in Paris, working as a personal shopper for a high-profile, demanding celebrity while grieving her twin brother, Lewis, who died of a heart defect. Bound by a pact she made to communicate with him in the afterlife, Maureen manoeuvres her grief, haunting encounters, and weird text messages from an unknown sender, as her life begins to spiral out of control.

The regisseur manages to successfully build a cold, creepy atmosphere throughout the picture’s runtime, as well as displaying proper grief and modern emptiness, in a scenario that sets a modern ghost story against the Parisian high fashion industry. Sadly, all of this is undermined by the incredibly sluggish pacing that takes way too long before it starts to pick up very slowly. This is exacerbated by the clumsy text thriller that is shoehorned in along the middle mark. Most infuriating, however, is the fact that the movie feels more like a string of occurrences than a cohesive plot, underlined by the weak ending with its lack of clear answers. 

Dialogues are minimal, preferring the use of silence and body language. A lot of the communication in the second act is displayed through extended text messaging scenes, which can become irritating.

Given that this is a piece on isolationism, there are very few actors worth noting. Some do make short reappearances here and there; however, the absolute focus lies on protagonist Maureen, played by Kristen Stewart.

Stewart herself gives a mixed performance. On one hand, she reflects the sad feeling of emptiness at having lost her twin brother well. Unfortunately, a lot of this is buried under her constant emotionless, mopey face - the same she put on through all of Twilight- as well as a ton of scoffing. She overexpresses her character several times, specifically during scenes with others. There is a segment by the end, concerning a police station, that she mastered beautifully. Anxiety, confusion, and shock were all well reflected. Alas, these scenes are few.

As for the rest of the cast, Nora Waldstätten, who depicts high-profile celebrity Kyra, has the minimum of screen time, with her only lines of dialogue over the phone. Lars Eidinger as Ingo is wasted, making barely an impression. The more surprising part is when a revelation is made about this persona. Sigrid Bouaziz probably has the largest amount of camera time, out of all the supporting cast. Her rendition of Lara, Lewis’ girlfriend, is fine. 

Cinematographically, regisseur Assayas and DP Yorick Le Saux capture the loneliness of the lead well by taping wide, stationary shots of minimally decorated houses and apartments, or simply obtaining empty shots of grand Parisian architecture. The lighting plus composition use natural light, with a cooler hue that suits the tone of this film well, yet the editing at times feels amateurish. Panning shots abruptly end in scene cuts, making for a jarring pacing. It also struggles with visibility during interior, low-light segments, due to its digital nature. 

The effects, in contrast, are solid. Clean, subtle use of CGI is used for ghostly apparitions that suit the context of the premise, without losing its grounded footing.

The movie makes use of a minimalistic soundtrack, composed by Sebastian Pen, that is supposed to mirror Maureen’s mental state. However, the jumps from creepy melodies, or no music at all, to loud pop songs can be once again uncomfortable.

---

Verdict: Olivier Assayas’ psychological thriller was a difficult one to review. On the one hand, it is, for the most part, competently directed, using uncomfortable close-ups on Stewart to express her growing isolation, using natural light in combination with a cold colour palette; even the subtle use of visual effects for apparitions is perfectly paired with the grounded realism this feature displays. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said of the screenplay, with the uncomfortably lethargic pacing and the nonexistence of a cohesive narrative. The director had all the ingredients at hand to make for an engaging experience, yet decided to not use any of them. Kristen Stewart herself gives a mixed performance; at times she feels genuine, during other segments she overacts, scoffing at everything. I don’t understand all the praise this received; for me, it was very mediocre. It’s a 5.5 out of 10.

So, Personal Shopper, did you go see it? Are you planning to? How was your experience? Do you agree with my sentiments? Let me know below & thank you for reading!