Personal Shopper (2017), directed by Oliver Assayas

An American in Paris, Lewis, has recently died from complications of a congenital heart defect, which also affects his twin Maureen. She is working in Paris as a personal shopper for an unpleasant celebrity while waiting for a sign from her dead brother, as they had promised each other. Kristen Stewart does her surly best to inhabit the morose Maureen; the remaining cast are peripheral. Her strength is unfortunately not sufficient to carry a film that has more than its fair share of WTF moments. There is minimal dialogue, some of which is swallowed by the muddy sound mix, and far too many long lingering shots of nothing very meaningful. Dreary rather than suspenseful, the only genuinely shocking moment jars against the general mood of introspective moodiness. The previous award-winning collaboration between writer-director Assayas and Stewart, The Clouds of Sils Maria, was complex, mysterious and thought provoking. He has attempted something similar here but the result is an unconvincing ghost story that ends up disappearing up its own backside.