Scenes from a Mall (1991)

Sadly Over-hyped

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

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.

Scenes from a Mall (1991)** (out of 4) Extremely disappointing comedy has Woody Allen and Bette Midler playing a couple who decide to celebrate their 16th wedding anniversary with a trip to the mall. Things are going pretty well until the husband admits that he just got done the previous day with a seven-month affair and this is where various secrets start to come out. SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE this ain't. There's no question that this movie doesn't work but the real mystery is why it doesn't. I've watched SCENES FROM A MALL a couple times not because it's entertaining but because it's just so strange to see such talent involved in a film that should have been so much better yet it never even reaches a mediocre level. Both Allen and Midler are very good actors who have no issues playing comedy yet they're really letdown by the screenplay, which is a complete mess. We start off with some good introductions to the characters and there are a few funny moments with the two trying to find time to have sex. The scenes at the busy mall start off well enough but there's still something missing from them. What's missing is any sort of laugh but I'm going to guess that writer-director Paul Mazursky just figured people would be "in" on the joke that malls are crowded. Other "in" jokes include three black guys rapping for no apparent reason and then we get a mime that is constantly showing up where the couple are fighting. Mimes are very annoying in my opinion but they can be put to good use at times. Just check out Mel Brooks' SILENT MOVIE for one example. The mime here adds nothing to the story and the attempt at humor falls flat on its face. Another problem with the screenplay is that it really doesn't go anywhere. The "secret" gets let out, they fight, they make up and then another secret follows and we go through the entire thing again before yet another secret comes out. Everything is so predictable that you can start watching the movie anywhere and still understand what you've missed and what's coming up. Allen and Midler are working in an overdrive because it's obvious they're trying hard to make the material work but there's simply nothing there. SCENES FROM A MALL should have been at least mildly entertaining but sadly it's a flop that's only entertainment value is seeing everything that went wrong with it.

Someone from Hollywood with a sympathetic heart should gather up all the prints of "Scenes from a Mall" and take a match to them. It would be an act of generosity. This comedy from Paul Mazursky is pretty much an appalling waste of film, and a waste of time for stars Woody Allen and Bette Midler. Allen and Midler play a California married couple 'celebrating' their 16 years together as husband and wife; they share a scene near the beginning in the bathtub, and see if you squirm through it as much as I did. I laughed one time during this atrocious fiasco (where Bette buys a new dress and Woody tells her she looks like his aunt). Otherwise, it's a claustrophobic drag with seemingly no script to fall back on. Everyone is winging it--badly. NO STARS from ****

Allen and Bette Milder play a couple visiting a shopping mall on their 16th wedding anniversary. They confront each other's infidelity and then they make up.This is an effective vehicle for Allen and Midler who go well together. In their grotesque sex scene you do not know whom to feel more sorry for. Director Paul Mazursky's plot is fairly mechanical and predictable but it is a good conceit to have virtually the entire film take place in a shopping mall.