Stewart lights up Paris in ‘Personal Shopper’

Actress Kristen Stewart may forever be associated with the popular "Twilight" franchise, movies that center on the growing pains of vampires and werewolves. Lately, however, she has shone in more serious fare from such directors as Woody Allen ("Cafe Society") and Kelly Reichardt ("Certain Women").

With her latest film, French director Olivier Assayas's "Personal Shopper," Stewart returns to the kind of supernatural themes that made her a star at the multiplex — only this time it's in a stylish, highly entertaining art-house thriller. Stewart plays Maureen, a personal shopper in Paris who buys expensive clothing for her busy celebrity client (Nora von Waldstätten). Maureen also works as a medium, charged with finding out whether a grand old house is still haunted by its late resident. That resident happens to be Maureen's twin brother, Lewis, and her search for a sign that his spirit has survived after death underscores the emptiness of her life. She is, after all, a mere assistant, someone who lacks her own identity and who wishes she could walk in her boss's designer shoes.

Assayas has always worked at a consistently high level of excellence, but "Personal Shopper" is his most vital film in years, at times recalling the verve of his 1996 breakthrough "Irma Vep" (whose star, Maggie Cheung, Stewart evokes whenever she gets on a motorcycle). But you don't need to be familiar with Assayas's previous work to enjoy "Personal Shopper." It works in two realms: as an engrossing ghost story and a drama that addresses profound matters of life and death.