Personal Shopper

Starring: Kristen Stewart, Lars Eidinger, Sigrid Bouaziz, Anders Danielsen Lie, Ty Olwin, Nora von Waldstatten
Directed by: Olivier Assayas
Rating: R
Genre: Drama, Horror, Mystery
2017

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A woman (Kristen Stewart) waits anxiously for her dead brother to make contact from the other side.

Review:

Tim: I'm still fascinated and amazed by Olivier Assayas' Personal Shopper. It's one of the more unconventional, surprising movies I've seen in a long time. It's a ghost story, but it's much more than that. It's an exploration of human emotions, of loss and resilience, of the material world verses the immaterial. The movie is like this beautiful puzzle, all wrapped up in the most incredible wrapping. You're not exactly sure what's at the heart of it, but simply unwrapping it constitutes a pleasurable experience. I really, really enjoyed this film.

Assayas has created something wholly unexpected here. I love his approach to the film- everything happens slowly. This isn't a movie in any need to rush, but it never feels like it's dragging. I have no idea how Assayas perfectly hit that balance- the plot feels slow, but in a compelling way. It's a quiet movie- the lack of dialogue for long stretches really makes an impact. The quietness, the absence of talking was so different than what we usually see. Assayas does a remarkable job of telling much of the story through text messages. If you told me I'd be watching Kristen Stewart do most of her talking through text, I might not even have picked this movie up. How could that be entertaining? And yet, those are some of the most intense, thrilling moments of the film. Not that there's a ton of worthwhile competition, but the texting scenes here are the greatest I've ever seen in a film. With Stewart, we are waiting with bated breath for the response. It seems absurd how much I'm talking about the texting scenes, but they were just incredible. They're part of this unexpected mystery that really adds a great element to the film.

And yet, texting aside, this movie is also a ghost story. The scenes with the ghost or whatever that spiritual entity was, were among the most memorable of the film. I love how they were depicted- it never felt like it was going the traditional horror route, although those scenes were indeed frightening. It was depicted as realistically as possible. I love that Assayas didn't give us the answers we wanted. We were in the same uncertainty boat that Stewart's character was in. There's so many little moments (like the floating glass dropping) that added this incredible ghost element into the story. It's interesting how this was balanced- this never felt like a ghost story first, but that was simply one of many elements interwoven together. I loved how that was handled.

I also have to given Kristen Stewart heaps of credit for her performance here. I think like others, I occasionally dismiss her as "that Twilight girl". It's hard for me to realize sometimes that she's a genuinely talented actress. This movie is absolutely hers- no one else in the cast makes nearly the impact she does. She has to carry the entire film, and most of it doesn't involve talking (or talking into an "empty" house when she does). That is not an easy feat, yet Stewart absolutely delivers during those scenes. She conveys a wide range of emotions without speaking in multiple different sequences. This is probably the best I've ever seen Stewart- I was so impressed with her performance.

Assayas has created something beautiful and haunting with Personal Shopper- a film that defies expectations and categorization. The movie might not quite have had the emotional impact it could have, but that doesn't change the fact that this is a really solid, entertaining movie. If people go into it expecting to have their expectations met, they will probably be disappointed. If you go in with an open mind, you'll find one of the more fascinating films of the year.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7.5



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