Scenes from a Mall (1991)

User Rating:

4.9/10   

Director:

Paul Mazursky

Writers (WGA):

Roger L. Simon (written by) &
Paul Mazursky (written by)

Release Date:

22 February 1991 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

On their 16th wedding anniversary, Deborah and Nick decided to work out all their differences ...in public.

Plot:

On their 16. anniversary, during a shopping stroll, the lawyer Nick Fifer confesses his wife Deborah some affairs...

Plot Keywords:

Shopping | Kicked In The Crotch | Mariachi Band | Dance Scene | Wedding Anniversary

Cast

Bette Midler	...	Deborah Fifer
Woody Allen	...	Nick Fifer
Bill Irwin	...	Mime
Daren Firestone	...	Sam
Rebecca Nickels	...	Jennifer
Paul Mazursky	...	Doctor Hans Clava
Gregory Moore	...	Barber Shop Quartet
Michael Brown	...	Barber Shop Quartet
Jonathan Guss	...	Barber Shop Quartet
David Frye	...	Barber Shop Quartet
Joseph Warren	...	Joe Cool & the Coolers (Rap Group)
Brian Warren	...	Joe Cool & the Coolers (Rap Group)
Darrell Mason	...	Joe Cool & the Coolers (Rap Group)
Marc Shaiman	...	Pianist
Augustin Bustamante	...	El Mariachi Bustamente

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Australia:M | Iceland:L | Portugal:M/12 (DVD rating) | Portugal:M/16 (original rating) | Argentina:13 | Chile:14 | Finland:S | France:U | Germany:12 | Peru:14 | Singapore:PG | Spain:T | Sweden:Btl | UK:15 | USA:R | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia)

Filming Locations:

Beverly Center - 8500 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Silver Screen Partners IV

Trivia:

Most of the film's mall scenes where filmed on a sound stage in Queens, New York. It was a two-level set nearly a quarter mile long with over 150 fully stocked stores. Scenes with elevators and escalators where filmed at a real mall in Stamford, Connecticut. Some exterior shots where filmed at the actual Beverly Center Mall in Los Angeles.

Quotes:

Deborah Fifer: Do you really hate this dress?
Nick Fifer: What I really hate is this jacket, this white jacket. I look like a Brazilian gigolo.

Movie Connections:

References The Godfather: Part III (1990)

Soundtrack:

MISTER SANTA

"Mutual death wish."

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.