Thriller a good match for actress’s talents
French filmmaker Olivier Assayas has entered into a fruitful collaboration with Kristen Stewart, showcasing the former “Twilight” star in new and refreshing ways.
Stewart’s talents have never been in question. She commanded attention as a child in “Panic Room” and, later, in indies such as “Into the Wild” and “Adventureland”; she also cavorted with sparkly vampires in the blockbuster young-adult “Twilight” franchise.
Stewart’s retreat into indie and foreign films seems akin to a “Twilight” rebellion — a richly welcomed one.
Assayas seems to intrinsically understand and capture the essence of Stewart, who won a Cesar (French Oscar) for her co-starring role in Assayas’ “Clouds of Sils Maria,” as Juliette Binoche’s frazzled assistant tending to her boss while rambling about in a remote Swiss rental home.
There are some parallels between that film and their second collaboration, but this time Stewart isn’t sharing the screen as Assayas channels notions of grief and spirituality through her singular brand of tousled ennui.
In “Personal Shopper,” Stewart plays the title character, Maureen, who works for a Scandinavian actress, Kyra (Nora von Directed by Olivier Assayas. R (for some language, sexuality, nudity and a bloody violent image) 1:45 at the Easton 30 and Gateway theaters
Waldstatten), in Paris.
Maureen picks up and delivers clothing and accessories, an easy enough gig to serve her purpose for being there. By day, she fingers and frets over luxurious couture garments and jewelry for someone else to wear; by night, she attempts to contact the spirit of her twin brother, Louis, who died of a heart attack.
Maureen claims that they’re both mediums and that she’s waiting for a sign from him so that she can move on.
The opening scene of “Sils Maria” featured Stewart futzing with an Apple product while on a train; in “Shopper,” Assayas makes that the film’s centerpiece. During a day trip to England to pick up gowns, Maureen receives a series of troubling text messages from an unknown number, claiming to be watching her, probing into her personal secrets.
She is at once terrified and drawn to the confessional interactions, but the menacing tone is undeniable. Is it Louis, texting from the beyond? Or someone or something more sinister?
The film has a meditative quality as Maureen goes about her day-to-day activities — picking up priceless Cartier jewelry or spending the night in an empty house, encountering spectral presences.
In her performance, Stewart embodies an appealing sense of laissez-faire: messy hair rumpled just so, battered T-shirt hanging just right. Assayas builds hypnotic rhythms around simply watching her while she grabs an espresso or beer, admires the cut of a cocktail dress, slips into one of Kyra’s heels, drives her Vespa around town.
The film, though, is far from slow. The threatening messages escalate, as Maureen falls deeper into the hole of this interaction. There’s a catharsis in acquiescing to the texter’s requests, relinquishing control to this unknown force.
The movie slowly builds to a bloody climax, with Maureen eventually released from her spell.
“Personal Shopper” is a little odd, but it’s also utterly mesmerizing — with a mix of realism and spirituality that normalizes the idea of ghosts and spirits among us in our daily lives.
Far more than that, though, the film pays testament to Stewart, who, in her magnetically naturalistic performance, not only proves her versatility but also cements a signature style inextricably linked to persona.