Stewart’s star rises over genre mix

PERSONAL Shopper mingles genres and the film, while ever less than watchable, is disconcertingly muddled. I first saw it at the Cannes Film estival, where it went down a storm and director Olivier Assayas won the Best Director ward. But I think clear-headed direction is what it lacks. At one level it’s a ghost story, and a very good, chilling one, s a grieving young woman called Maureen (Kristen Stewart), tries to reach beyond the grave to connect with her twin brother, Lewis.

He had a congenital heart problem, which she shares. He was also a medium, and the pair had a pact that whichever of them died first would send a message from the other side. But Maureen also works, in Paris, as an assistant to a divaish celebrity. Her main job is to buy clothes for her boss, who is evidently far too busy to go shopping for herself.

What ensues is like two films running side by side, their narratives only occasionally interweaving, as if Asseyas had a couple of ideas and didn’t think either quite worked alone.

Still, Stewart gives an intense performance that is the beating heart of the film, whether she is summoning up wraiths or getting sexually excited raiding her boss’s wardrobe.

And we share her alarm when she’s pursued on the Eurostar by what seems to be a malevolent spirit contacting by text.

Asseyas has described Stewart as the best film actress of her generation, which is a mighty claim as she’s only 26. Personal Shopper does nothing to undermine his assertion; I just wish it were less odd.