The unfortunate consequences of trying to speak to the deceased are presented alongside a tale of jealousy and insatiability.
This film defies the laws of genre conventions in an attempt to create a story with multiple layers. Initially I approached the film intrigued by this, however after watching it’s full 1 hour and 43 minutes I was left feeling slightly confused and unsatisfied. Why? I will try to explain this in a simple way as there were multiple reasons why I felt the narrative was unsuccessful.
The central failure of the film for me was the very thing that was intended to set the film apart for most others, the path-like structure. The beginning of the film gives a strong impression of a horror film, however, as the story begins to unfold random elements of a thriller are thrown in with little reason. The two main paths of the film are the two main parts of Maureen’s life, her job and her personal life. With regards to her personal life she is determined to reach her dead brother in response to a pact that they made when he was alive. In several scenes we see her trying to get him to send a sign, however, this is often unsuccessful and leaves her looking for more options which could increase her chances of reaching him.
In terms of her job, she is a personal shopper for successful model Kyra, we learn more about her infatuation with Kyra’s life as Maureen responds to texts from an unknown stalker who she hopes may be her brother. This leads to Maureen testing her limits and fulfilling her fantasies of trying on Kyra’s clothes which goes unnoticed however is followed by the unexpected death of Kyra in her own home. This scene is where the two paths cross over as Maureen Discover’s Kyra’s lifeless body and senses another presence in the apartment which she runs from. This scene was intended to be a climax for the film however I found it to be one of the most disappointing moments in the film. It not only felt slow and badly written but lacked exposition as to what was going on it the apartment. You could argue that this was intentionally ambiguous however when we later found out who the stalker and likely killer was it becomes a very mediocre narrative and uninspiring.
Maybe this is just a result of my lacking interest for a particular element of the film such as the thriller style however I think that any good piece of cinema is able to contain a narrative that holds at least some kind of moment that strongly resonates with the viewer and I felt that the Personal Shopper was lacking in this respect. I can however say that Kristine Stewarts acting was a strong point in the film as she was able to portray a grieving character in a believable way. The aesthetics were also very well thought out at points using a muted colour palette and low-key lighting to connote the jealousy and sadness in Maureen’s life.
Unfortunately, though the negatives heavily outweighed these positives for me, and I feel like I could have spent my time more wisely. I suppose if you are a big fan of thrillers then you may find this film slightly more pleasurable however I am usually pretty open minded in terms of genre so I doubt that a thriller lover would have a very different opinion. Lets talk about the ending. At this point in the film I was feeling rather underwhelmed which may cause some bias in my opinion of the ending. For me the ending was similar to the rest of the film, slow and anticlimactic. Maureen is talking to her brother for the final time, getting emotional and seemingly fed up. At the end of her dragging monologue we are met with a flood white and the film finally meets it’s end. Once again, I was oblivious as to why the film decided to end in this way as it brought little closure which for me was just the icing on top of a very bland cake. Then again if you are a fan of open narratives then maybe this film Is for you. Overall, I would give Personal shopper a solid 2 stars due to it’s sheer mediocrity and lack of exposition in many points of the film.
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