I don't think I will see a much better film this year.
The script is beautifully nuanced. The pacing is perfect. Kristen Stewart has come good. Paris looks intense. And, most importantly, Personal Shopper has two endings.
One is right. One, however, is good.
When Maureen is still in Paris, there is a conversation in the garden that segues into that inevitable mystery scene. Maureen is confronted by the ghost of her dead brother. She, however, does not see him, and perceives the broken pieces as nothing more than, well, a bunch of broken pieces. She does not recognise them as a sign she'd been waiting for all this time... Following the conversation in the garden, this should do it. She got over it. She has her life back.
This makes sense. This is the right ending. It ticks the box you expect to be ticked.
Thankfully, Personal Shopper doesn't end there. Instead, Maureen travels to Oman to see her boyfriend. Here, she is yet again confronted by the supernatural, and this time it's a glass hanging in the air. Conjuring up the old practice of table-turning, she asks questions about her brother (the invisible entity could well be him) and the ghost gives her answers that do not necessarily add up. Which is when Maureen is reduced to asking "Is it just me?" A brief pause follows. Then a single knock.
This may not be the right ending and it may fail to tick your personal box, but Christ it's good. And in life as well as in art, you should always take what is good over what is right.
