Scenes from a Mall (1991)

Scenes from a Mall is a hard film to describe. It has a great premise, two great leads that immediately click, a skilled director, and a setting that is one of my favorites. Why the low rating? It's hard to put my finger on what actually goes wrong. The best way is to pick and choose certain scenes and events to explain why the film becomes inferior to expectations.The film is about Woody Allen and Bette Midler playing Nick and Deborah Fifer, a married couple with more baggage than you'd expect. He is a stressed out executive, and she is a marital psychotherapist. In honor of their sixteenth anniversary, they both agree to go to a trendy mall in order to pick up their anniversary gifts. She gets him a surfboard, with his name engraved on it, and he gets her a beautifully framed picture of the entire family.Deborah then finds out Nick has took part in several acts of infidelity. Nick then finds out Deborah has took part in several acts of infidelity. Rather than doing the logical thing and leaving the mall, they continue to wonder around the setting, squabbling, and getting attention from innocent bystanders.Does this sound like a film you'd truly like to see? No. But considering the remarkable talent involved most Woody fans would see it solely because he is in it. Right off the bat, the premise is tiresome. We hear many conversations, incorporating lengthy monologues and several fights. Only about a half a dozen truly interesting. Mostly because there is no zest. The couple is right, and so is the tone, but the true killer is the uninspired dialog.It doesn't seem to have much confidence in itself either. Because it's in a mall, or a sound stage built to look like a real functioning mall, inevitably, you like to look at all the background events. The film is pictorial, in every sense of the word. It relies on goofy setups rather than its own material. Maybe because it feels inferior, boring, or just plan self-conscious. Truthfully, it is a little boring, but those pictorial backdrops don't do much justice.When Deborah buys Nick the surfboard, what does he have to do? Carry the thing around the mall for most of the film. Rather than walking out to the car, he has to carry a big, yellow, protruding board while they walk around the mall aimlessly. At least the film doesn't have some ridiculous cartoon gag where Woody Allen's character hits people with it.There's also a mime, played by Bill Irwin, and he has got to be one of the most annoying film characters of all time. The mime is put in the mall to entertain shoppers, and in the film to provide a failure of comic relief. He mimics the bickering couple in frequent points of the film, and never seems to stop miming or being a nuisance. He's an unnecessary, poorly conceived character who has no purpose in a film like this.Some scenes work, some scenes don't. Some scenes are funny, some aren't. It's a mere gamble. Woody Allen and Bette Midler create some undeniably fantastic chemistry, but the rest of the film fumbles because that is truly the only thing it has to offer. Scene from a Mall is cute and often harmless, but it suffers from a dreary script and "too cute of a setting" syndrome.Starring: Bette Midler, Woody Allen, and Bill Irwin. Directed by: Paul Mazursky.

Even though the movie is pretty much everything that Woody Allen is not, it's still somewhat enjoyable to see him paired with the amazing Bette Midler. The story is interesting to say the very least: it's their anniversary, and Nick (Allen) decides to share a secret. It so happens that they are located in a mall, and the drama is surrounded and contrasted by hundreds of neons, stores, billboards, colors, and excitement. In the midst of all this, a life shared for years is crumbling down, as Nick is not the only one with a secret. The movie, being interesting as it is, has its flaws. The dynamic between Deb (Midler) and Nick is sometimes unbearable as it shifts drastically from one side to another. They are both on two separate rollercoasters, and it's can be annoying. Perhaps the most charming feature is its never-ending symbolism. Every little thing can be interpreted as many different things in the movie, and I don't think the movie should be taken in as it is. There are many interesting aspects in the movie, and as always, Woody Allen delivers with his almost-there-over-the-top performance. All in all, it's probably not the easiest and not the best thing Allen has been a part of, but it's still worth it to see him yelling and talking about sex...because it always is.

Some films make the viewer a participant. Others make the viewer, well, a viewer. Others make the viewer a voyeur. SCENES FROM A MALL makes the viewer a third wheel. A very uncomfortable position to be in.Like in real life, the third wheel is the poor schmuck who innocently accompanies a couple on a date or dinner or whatever and often ends up being less a companion than a witness, or worse, a referee, when a lovers' spat breaks out. In such a situation, all one can do is to keep looking at one's watch, pretend that there is nothing wrong and, above all else, don't get involved.When it was announced that SCENES FROM A MALL would pair Bette Midler and Woody Allen together as a bickering couple who spend the day at the mall, I couldn't help but smile. Bette and Woody married, what a great idea. They both seem so different, yet so perfect together. And to their credit, they do have great chemistry here. They click. And they are certainly convincing as a couple with a whole boat load of marital issues. Maybe too convincing. What could have been an amusing thread of a story if interwoven into a larger tapestry becomes instead a tiresome ordeal. Woody and Bette argue and bicker and insult and break up and kiss and make up and argue and bicker and insult some more. Their day-long excursion to the mall to do Christmas shopping becomes an extended primal therapy session. Despite the best efforts of the two stars, what begins as an amusing domestic comedy rapidly become just plain annoying. The fault lies with writer/director Paul Mazursky, whose films -- good, bad or indifferent -- seldom have a strong focus and tend to ramble shamelessly. It is a style of film-making that, in theory, tries to represent realism, but in practice it violates the conventions of what we accept as film reality -- reelity, so to speak. Mazursky's films always tend to look and feel like rehearsals, not a finished production.This film has it assets. Woody and Bette, of course. And the recreation of a California mall, mostly filmed on a New York soundstage is quite convincing (though how many malls feature ballroom dancing?). SCENES FROM A MALL looks right and is acted just right, but in the end, this trip to the mall wears you out, leaving you just wanting to go home.

In Annie Hall, Alvy Singer observes that the only cultural advantage of living in California is that you can make a left on a red light. Here. in the thick of it, Woody's character is a committed Los Angelean with designer suits, fast-talking business deals but still with that underlying angst. There's a lot to recommend this relatively stagey effort from Paul Mazursky - the screenplay, the leads and the unique setting - although Kevin Smith has done it better since in Mallrats. What is perhaps missing here is any new revelation or insight into the characters who remain pretty much two-dimensional throughout. It is alas predictable fare but still worth a look for a touch of Woody as he might have been if California had enticed him over.