I am back after a week break and Mark has welcomed me back with ‘Personal Shopper’ (2016). This is a film that has intrigued me since it was released, although I never had a huge urge to seek it out. So, Mark choosing it for his BFI choice of the week was a great way for me to get around to watching it. Despite my intrigue around the film, I actually knew almost nothing about it other than Kristen Stewart was highly praised for her performance, so I was excited to see what it had to offer. The film follows Maureen (Kristen Stewart), a personal shopper for an A-list celebrity, who hates her job. Living and working in Paris, she splits her time between the job she hates and trying to contact her twin brother who had recently died. Her life takes an added twist when she starts to receive ominous texts from an unknown source, and she is unsure if these come from the land of the living or the dead.
So, I want to start with Kristen Stewart, only because she, like Robert Pattinson, always had the aura of ‘Twilight’ around her. Having seen all those films recently I can say that she isn’t good, but no one is good in those films and so the fact she was hugely criticised and had a reputation of being a bad actress is unfair. Robert Pattinson managed to really turn around my opinion on him, but I haven’t seen much of Stewart before, so this was a good chance for her to do so. And I think she is good in the film. She didn’t wow me, but she carried the character well and she was particularly strong when the film became a bit more paranormal. The performance is subtle and understated, but the whole film has that vibe to it in a way and so it works. On a technical level, the film is really solid. It is really well shot and there are several great looking sequences with good shot composition. The film is visually more striking when it focuses on the paranormal side of the film, but it does look really good throughout. One thing I do want to mention is the editing, especially how the film uses transitions and fades to black. I think I am starting to realise I am really not a fan of fade to black scene transitions. I can’t actually put my finger on why I dislike them, but whenever they occur, I always feel annoyed. It is very much a preference and I don’t think the film using them really makes much of a difference to my overall enjoyment of the film, but I couldn’t not mention it.
Now, while I appreciate that this is a well-made film with solid performances, I didn’t actually like it. I didn’t hate it and I wouldn’t be opposed to watching it again to see if my initial opinion is off, but that initial opinion is that I didn’t particularly enjoy the film. I just wasn’t able to buy into the film on an emotional level at all and so the film ended up becoming more of a drag than an enjoyable film-watching experience. It has some solid sequences where I was able to buy into the film, but for a lot of it I wasn’t, and I think that is because the narrative struggle to focus on any one aspect of the narrative and so none of them felt like they had any real reason for me to buy-in. Maureen is supposed to hate her job, but other than her telling us this and one scene where her boss is a little obnoxious this isn’t focused on and is almost brushed under the carpet. The paranormal aspect of the film also seems to just come and go as it pleases and is muddled in how it approaches that aspect of the narrative. And the main plot of the mysterious text messages is really anti-climactic and sorts itself out in a way that left me just kind of going ‘oh’. Like I said, I think this is a well-made film and I can see why people would be into it, but it left me cold.
And so, it has finally happened. Mark has picked a film that I haven’t enjoyed. Fair play to him for getting this far choosing films that I at the very least enjoyed. And even this film is not a film that I think is bad. I think it is well made and performed and there is interesting stuff in there, but I just could not get emotionally invested in the film and so there was very little chance of me really enjoying it. Again, I am not opposed to seeing it again to see if I would enjoy it, but for now, it is not a film I would recommend particularly.
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