--- title: "Personal Shopper" year: 2016 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/personal-shopper" fi1m_score: 76 critics_score: 69 critics_reviews: 25 published: "2026-09-17T12:46:45.759903+00:00" updated: "2026-09-17T12:46:46.211486+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Personal Shopper (2016) Directed by Olivier Assayas · 1h 46m · MPA R · Drama, Mystery, Thriller **Fi1m score: 76** · Critics 69 from 25 reviews *In a sentence:* Kristen Stewart is haunted by a dead twin, an unknown number and a Chanel dress she is not allowed to wear > Olivier Assayas sets a ghost story among garment bags and courier runs, and its most frightening scenes are text messages on a train. Kristen Stewart carries it almost alone. The second half loses its grip in places, and the ending will send some out muttering. ## Synopsis Paris. Maureen Cartwright (Kristen Stewart), an American, works as personal shopper to Kyra Gellman (Nora Waldstätten), a celebrity with no time to visit the fashion houses herself, so Maureen rides a scooter between Chanel and the jewellers collecting outfits she is forbidden to try on. She is also a medium. Her twin brother has died, and before he did they agreed that whoever went first would send the other a sign. She spends nights alone in the empty house he shared with his girlfriend Lara (Sigrid Bouaziz), which is about to be sold, listening for him. Her boyfriend Gary (Ty Olwin) calls from a job abroad. Kyra’s lover Ingo (Lars Eidinger) starts taking an interest in her. Then a text arrives from a number she does not recognise. ## Review Olivier Assayas has made a ghost story and set it in the back rooms of Paris fashion houses. Maureen Cartwright (Kristen Stewart) spends her days on a scooter collecting dresses and jewellery for Kyra Gellman (Nora Waldstätten), a woman too famous to shop for herself, and her nights in an empty house waiting for her dead twin brother to knock. She is a medium, and the two of them agreed that whoever died first would send the other a sign. *Personal Shopper* is Assayas’s second film with Stewart after *Clouds of Sils Maria* (2014). It is the stranger of the two, it is good, and in two long stretches it frightened us more than most horror films manage. The house comes first. François-Renaud Labarthe gives it bare walls, a staircase and too many doors, and Yorick Le Saux lights the night scenes with what appears to be the glow from the street and nothing else. Maureen walks the rooms with a hand on the banister and says nothing. A tap runs. Something upstairs shifts. Assayas is not coy: when he decides to show a ghost he shows one, an old-fashioned one, and has it off the screen before we can object. We were frightened, plainly, and by almost nothing. The day job is treated as seriously as the haunting. Maureen queues at a Chanel press office, signs for garment bags, and is not permitted to try any of it on. Jürgen Doering keeps her in the same jumper and jeans, so the dresses she carries look made for a different sort of person. Waldstätten has two scenes and makes Kyra loathsome without raising her voice. Lars Eidinger’s Ingo, Kyra’s lover, talks to Maureen the way people talk to staff when they want something, and Eidinger lets us see him enjoying it. The centrepiece is a train to London. Maureen’s phone lights up with a message from a number she does not know, and the stranger knows things about her. Assayas holds on the screen, on the three dots that mean someone is typing, and Marion Monnier cuts between the phone and Stewart’s face and almost nothing else for what felt like a quarter of an hour. Few horror films with ten times as much in them have gripped us as hard. It is that Maureen answers, and we could see her deciding to, and we wanted to lean across the aisle and take the phone away. Stewart is on screen alone for most of the 106 minutes and carries it. She fidgets, chews a sleeve, says “I don’t know” a great deal, and gives Maureen a grief that has settled into bad posture rather than tears. There is a scene in which she puts on something she was told not to, with nobody watching, and it is the saddest thing in the film. Ty Olwin’s Gary, her boyfriend, is a face on a laptop who exists so she has someone to say things aloud to; Sigrid Bouaziz’s Lara and Anders Danielsen Lie’s Erwin get one good scene at a kitchen table and are then forgotten. Around the hour mark the second half turns towards a crime story, which we will not describe, and Assayas handles that material with markedly less confidence than the haunting. A police interview (Hammou Graïa is the officer) is played flat when it needs pressure, and a long walk down a hotel corridor waits for a payoff we suspect only Assayas can see. A television programme about Victor Hugo’s séances, with Benjamin Biolay as Hugo, plays like the film handing over its reading list. No single composer is credited; the music is a few songs and long silences, and that suits it. The people around us divided on the way out. We came down on the film’s side because the two things it does best, the house and the train, are done better than almost anyone else is doing them. It carries a 15 certificate and opened in UK cinemas on 17 March 2017. Watch it at home, alone, with your own phone face down on the table. *Fi1m score 76, published 17 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics like Olivier Assayas’s second film with Kristen Stewart, and admirers and doubters alike put Stewart at the centre of the case. Her performance as Maureen, a grieving personal shopper and medium, is called magnetic, fidgety and naturalistic, and several reviews describe the film as close to a one-woman show. Praise clusters on the text-message sequences, which many single out as the film’s most frightening stretch, turning a phone screen into a source of dread. The reservations concern shape. A sizeable minority find the ghost story, thriller, grief drama and fashion satire never fuse, with loose ends and an ending that leaves people perplexed, and some feel Assayas withholds too much. The spread is wide, from full marks at The Telegraph to The Hollywood Reporter dismissing it as empty hokum and Eye for Film arguing the text exchanges kill the tension rather than build it. The harshest notices come from Cannes; the reviews on release are warmer. ### Reviews we read (25) - **The Telegraph** (5/5): The review calls it a nerve-jangling ghost mystery in which Kristen Stewart transfixes as the psychic personal shopper, commending the film's fluency, poise, and spellbinding central performance in its second collaboration with Assayas. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/personal-shopper-review-kristen-stewart-transfixes-nerve-jangling/) - **Los Angeles Times**, Justin Chang (90/100, inferred): The critic calls it a gripping portrait of solitude and a hell of a one-woman show for Stewart, praising its portrayal of grief and modern anxieties. The iPhone sequences are singled out as a brilliantly sustained Hitchcockian centerpiece turning technology into dread. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-personal-shopper-review-20170309-story.html) - **The Guardian**, Peter Bradshaw (85/100, inferred): The critic praises the film as a stylish, mysterious ghost story and character study held together by Kristen Stewart's outstanding, naturalistic performance as a haunted personal shopper and medium. They highlight its uncanny ambiguity, poignant exploration of grief and loneliness, and standout sequences involving texts and couture. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/mar/16/personal-shopper-review-kristen-stewart-olivier-assayas) - **Time Out**, Guy Lodge (85/100, inferred): Kristen Stewart delivers a galvanising performance in Assayas's bewitching, unconventional ghost story set in Paris. The film thrives on shifting ambiguities and Stewart's quizzical presence as a haunted personal shopper. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/personal-shopper) - **Little White Lies**, Manuela Lazic (4/4/4): Kristen Stewart excels in this strange, surprising and occasionally sublime film, projecting anguish and ambiguity with unmatched skill. Assayas builds a multi-faceted character around grief and spirituality but occasionally veers into the ridiculous with its tech-mysticism interplay. [Read](https://lwlies.com/reviews/personal-shopper) - **The New Yorker**, Anthony Lane (80/100, inferred): The critic finds the film a weird but effective amalgam of ghost story, thriller and identity search that works despite its oddities. Kristen Stewart's fidgety, bereft performance provides proof of life amid the supernatural elements. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/03/20/personal-shopper-and-frantz) - **Evening Standard**, David Sexton (75/100, inferred): Assayas's arty cocktail of haunted house and psychological drama leaves open whether events are real or imagined, but Kristen Stewart is highly watchable in the lead. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/cannes-2016-personal-shopper-film-review-kristen-stewart-returns-to-the-twilight-zone-a3249811.html) - **Sight and Sound**, Nick James (75/100, inferred): The review praises Kristen Stewart's enigmatic, magnetically watchable performance as the grieving medium Maureen. It highlights Assayas's straightforward handling of ghostly elements and the tension-building SMS sequences as effective explorations of grief. [Read](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/personal-shopper-first-look) - **Slant Magazine** (75/100, inferred): The critic praises Assayas's film as the better of two at Cannes for its shock of the strange and Stewart's virtuosic performance that projects strength masking vulnerability. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/cannes-film-review-personal-shopper-and-julieta/) - **Empire**, Olly Richards (70/100, inferred): The film is a peculiar muddle that doesn't entirely work as a ghost story or thriller, with loose ends and uneven scares, but it excels as an atmospheric character piece. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/personal-shopper-review/) - **The AV Club**, Mike D'Angelo (B-): The critic calls it a must-see for its singular vision and genuinely frightening effects but notes it never fuses its ideas into a satisfying whole, making it underwhelming overall. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/a-singular-kristen-stewart-ghost-story-joins-the-booed-1798247318) - **The New York Times**, A.O. Scott (Critic's Pick): The critic praises the film as a raw study in grief that is also a supernatural thriller and inquiry into modern life. Kristen Stewart's self-enclosed detachment is highlighted as a peculiar form of intensity. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/09/movies/personal-shopper-review-kristen-stewart.html) - **Vulture** (65/100, inferred): The critic loves nearly all of the maddeningly elusive mood piece for its beauty and Stewart's performance but finds it unsatisfying due to the director's arty withholding and failure to deliver on genre elements. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/2017/03/movie-review-personal-shopper.html) - **Screen Daily** (50/100, inferred): Stewart's committed performance holds together this odd hybrid of ghost story, thriller and satire about a young woman's search for closure after her twin's death. The film lacks the style and verve of comparable genre works and received downbeat notices at Cannes. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/personal-shopper-cannes-review/5104074.article) - **Variety** (50/100, inferred): The review describes a broken but never boring mix of horror, workplace drama and identity search that is likely to divide audiences. It notes the unconventional study of spiritual crisis and the director's bold reunion with Stewart. [Read](https://variety.com/2016/film/reviews/personal-shopper-review-kristen-stewart-1201775572/) - **The Times**, Ed Potton (★★☆☆☆): The critic finds the arthouse fashion horror unusual and unsettling but not as clever as it thinks it is, noting its aimless quality and Stewart's mopey performance amid long wordless scenes. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/article/personal-shopper-l2dphsns8) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Todd McCarthy (20/100, inferred): The critic finds the film an aggravatingly empty would-be suspense piece that even Kristen Stewart cannot elevate, calling it spooky hokum from start to finish. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/personal-shopper-cannes-review-894616/) - **Collider**, Brian Formo (A-): The critic finds Kristen Stewart brilliant in her near-solo performance as a grieving medium and calls the film a divisive but ultimately rewarding exploration of communication failures. It singles out the extended text-message sequences for capturing the anxiety and isolation of modern digital interactions. [Read](https://collider.com/kristen-stewart-personal-shopper-review/) - **Den of Geek**, Ryan Lambie (4/5): The film builds unrelenting tension through its mix of supernatural and thriller elements rather than relying on jump scares. Kristen Stewart delivers a compelling, introspective lead performance as a character navigating grief and modern isolation. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/personal-shopper-review/) - **The Ringer**, K. Austin Collins (80/100, inferred): The critic calls the film a perfect modern ghost story that blends supernatural elements with themes of contact and self-identity, praising Assayas for welding the strands into a challenging whole. It singles out Kristen Stewart’s magnetic, physical performance and the way the film captures fleeting presences in the digital and spectral worlds. [Read](https://www.theringer.com/2017/03/13/movies/personal-shopper-film-review-60d3f4a27c05) - **The Skinny**, Ben Nicholson (4/5): Assayas crafts an unsettling modern ghost story that explores grief, identity, and technological disconnection through effective use of text-message tension. Kristen Stewart gives a career-best performance as the isolated protagonist. [Read](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/festivals/uk-festivals/film/personal-shopper-kristen-stewart) - **The Wrap** (70/100, inferred): The critic finds the film a captivating arthouse thriller that keeps audiences engaged with its enigmatic storytelling. Assayas is singled out for skillfully incorporating modern technology like text messages into the narrative tension. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/personal-shopper-review-kristen-stewart-olivier-assayas/) - **The Playlist**, Jessica Kiang (C+): The film is a messy, deeply unsatisfying jumble of ghost story, grief drama, murder mystery and fashion satire that only occasionally clicks in overlapping moments. It is peculiarly watchable moment-to-moment thanks to Stewart's charisma and some evocative sequences, but the strands never cohere and the ending leaves viewers perplexed. [Read](https://theplaylist.net/cannes-review-olivier-assayas-personal-shopper-kristen-stewart-messy-unsatisfying-20160516/) - **HeyUGuys**, Jo-Ann Titmarsh (60/100, inferred): The critic finds the film an intriguing but uneven supernatural drama that is sometimes daft and occasionally terrifying. Stewart carries the film with a strong performance conveying grief and fear, and the text-message thriller sequences are its strongest element, though some scenes and dialogue fall flat. [Read](https://www.heyuguys.com/personal-shopper-review/) - **Eye for Film**, Richard Mowe (30/100, inferred): The critic argues that Stewart cannot make her isolated, grief-stricken character come alive and that prolonged on-screen text exchanges kill any tension or interest. The film promises much with its ghost story and fashion-world backdrop but ultimately fails to deliver due to thin backstory and unengaging execution. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/personal-shopper-2016-film-review-by-richard-mowe) ## Details - **Director:** Olivier Assayas - **Director:** Olivier Assayas - **Screenplay:** Olivier Assayas - **Cinematography:** Yorick Le Saux - **Editor:** Marion Monnier - **Music:** AA. VV. - **Production design:** François-Renaud Labarthe - **Costume design:** Jürgen Doering - **Producer:** Charles Gillibert - **Cast:** Kristen Stewart as Maureen Cartwright; Lars Eidinger as Ingo; Sigrid Bouaziz as Lara; Anders Danielsen Lie as Erwin; Ty Olwin as Gary; Hammou Graïa as Police Officer; Nora Waldstätten as Kyra Gellman; Benjamin Biolay as Victor Hugo - **Runtime:** 1h 46m - **Certificate (MPA):** R - **Release (the US):** 10 March 2017 - **Genres:** Drama, Mystery, Thriller - **Budget:** $6 million - **Box office:** $1 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xC8AjoqpBAY ## Where to watch in the US - AMC+: streaming - Hulu: add-on, hd - Paramount+: add-on - Amazon Prime Video: add-on - Apple TV: add-on, hd - The Roku Channel: add-on, hd - Amazon Prime Video: rent $2.99, sd - Apple TV: rent $3.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $9.99, sd - Apple TV: buy $9.99, hd *Checked 2026-09-17.* Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EE, FI, FR, GB, HU, IE, IN, IT, LT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PL, PT, SE, UA, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Don't Look Now* (1973), Fi1m 90: Grief, a promised sign from the dead, and a city that will not help. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/dont-look-now.md) - *Lake Mungo* (2008): An Australian family films its own haunting; the quietest ghost story we know. - *Caché* (2005), Fi1m 88: Anonymous messages arrive and Haneke refuses, to the end, to say who sent them. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/cache.md) - *A Ghost Story* (2017), Fi1m 84: A sheet with eyeholes, a widow, a pie, and more feeling than it should manage. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/a-ghost-story.md) - *Clouds of Sils Maria* (2014): Stewart and Assayas the first time round, talkier, sunnier, with Binoche to spar with. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/personal-shopper