As suggested to me by countless critics and fans of independent film, I finally got around to seeing Olivier Assayas' Personal Shopper, now that it's on Netflix. Kristen Stewart puts out an incredible and heartfelt performance which gave so much life to Assayas' touching screenplay and graceful direction. As a devoted fan and critic of film, I try my absolute hardest to like, or at least appreciate, what other fans and critics do. However, I suppose I just simply could not connect to this film on the same level that others have. This haunting movie is a sincere ghost story at its core, but it falls directly into a type of dramatic subgenre of independent film that I just can not seem to develop a taste for, akin to First Reformed. Despite my personal disinterest in this moody style, I still relatively enjoyed this narrative for what it was.
This film follows Maureen, played by Kristen Stewart, a young woman living in Paris whose twin brother has recently passed away while she was working as a personal shopper for an A-list celebrity. Along with shopping for celebrities, Maureen doubles as an attempted medium and tries to reach out to the spirit of her brother. Things only get more complicated, however, when an anonymous stranger begins reaching out to her through text messages. The plot of this film is definitely just the perfect amount of "off" to make the story interesting enough to be engaged in. The audience is thrust into the strange world of Maureen's life and career without much notice or detailed exposition, but thankfully Assayas' writing and direction make it clear what kind of weird story we are in for. These may be my personal favorite aspects of this whole film, as it was obvious how tender and careful he was in crafting this story. As previously mentioned, this mysterious style is not exactly my forte, but I loved seeing how raw and natural this story was. Stewart's performance absolutely helped my opinion as well, as she pleasantly surprised me with how incredible her acting actually was. I must admit, I have always dismissed her as the girl from the Twilight movies, but she has definitely impressed me beyond words with her subtle body language and perfect execution. The only issue I have with her character is the script trying so desperately to show that she is straight when we all know better than that.
Pieces of this film that I did not particularly enjoy, however, were its ending, editing, and over-reliance on smartphone screens. While the final scenes of the movie are definitely its most widely-discussed and controversial in terms of its message, I just do not like ambiguous conclusions such as these. Maybe the ghost haunting her was her brother the whole time or maybe it was just a figment of her imagination that she used to cope with the loss. The ending does nothing to clarify this and while that was probably the intent, I much prefer narrative satisfaction over introspective analysis. Marion Monnier's editing was also a bit of a distraction for me. While she effectively smoothed out any kind of bumps in the story, I have never been and never will be a fan of fade to black transitions and this film had plenty. Perhaps that is more of a French filmmaking style, but those transitions were used to end nearly every scene and it almost took away from the film. The last part of this movie that I could absolutely not stand was a minor part of the script. The entire conversation that occurs between Maureen and the stranger happens on her phone. No matter how riveting a story is or how important phones are in a script, I will never enjoy watching someone text back and forth. This took up a large chunk of the dialogue's time and it was very bothersome. I understand that my issues with this film may seem trivial, but they are just the little details that will make or break a movie experience for me.
Personal Shopper is another fantastic example of a film that furthers Assayas and Stewart's creative endeavors together. Even though I have never been a fan of ambiguous endings or offbeat creative choices, I adore and respect the amount of tender care put into this narrative. If there is one thing for certain, though, it's that I will definitely be thinking about this film for a while, especially its peculiar ending.
My Rating: ★★★½
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