The Twilight actress play a personal shopper with clairvoyant talents in a new thriller that divided critics at Cannes. Nicholas Barber gives his verdict.
Kristen Stewart became a superstar when she had to choose between a vampire and a werewolf (we’ve all been there) in the Twilight series; in her new film, Personal Shopper, she has to deal with ghosts, as well.
In some ways, this return to the supernatural realm will please Twilight devotees.
Quite a few of them will be grateful for the scenes of Stewart stripping off and trying on black lingerie, if nothing else.
But in other respects, K-Stew fans will be perplexed.
Personal Shopper reunites Stewart with Olivier Assayas, whose previous film, Clouds of Sils Maria, established her as a critically lauded, Cesar-winning darling of European cinema.
But their second collaboration – which received both boos and applause at Cannes – is an altogether odder, less satisfying and, let’s be honest, sillier affair.
There is a lot about it that doesn’t make sense, but the romantic comedy-like title is logical enough: Stewart’s character, Maureen, is indeed a personal shopper.
She is paid to ride a scooter around Paris, picking out eye-wateringly expensive clothes and jewellery for her celebrity client (the under-used Nora von Waldstatten).
Sometimes, she even hops onto the Eurostar to London to collect a dress or two, but it isn’t a job she enjoys: having sloughed some of her Twilight-era mannerisms for Woody Allen’s Café Society, Stewart defaults yet again to the hunched, muttering, lip-chewing awkwardness of a teenager who doesn’t want to be in the family photo at Christmas.
But while Maureen’s work can be frustrating, and her boss can be difficult, she has her own reason to stick around in Paris.
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