Marathon of Shops: Scenes from a Mall (1991)



Prior to the creation of the Marathon of Shops, I had never heard of the movie Scenes from a Mall.  I did not know what it was, who was in it, who directed it, or what it was about.  I had never heard the name before.  Now I know all of these things because I watched it as part of the Marathon of Shops.  Did I like it, or not?

Scenes from a Mall was released in 1991.  It starred Bette Midler and Woody Allen.  The director was Paul Mazursky.  The plot of Scenes from a Mall was that a married couple goes to the mall, where they begin to confess their extramarital affairs to each other, and they deal with the fallout of these confessions.  Does it sound exciting?
A man, a woman, a mime.
It’s not.  I was bored almost the entire way through this movie.  The strife between the two leads meant nothing to me, especially with the reveal that they were both guilty.  If the writer wanted me to feel any sympathy for the main characters, all chance of that was lost with that reveal.  These characters were terrible in terms of their marriage.  It makes them unsympathetic and unenjoyable.  The only character that was even remotely good in the movie was a mime, and even then, the mime was a jerk.

If there was one great thing about the movie, it would be the use of the mall.  It felt like a real mall.  The look, from the layout to the stores to the people within it, all felt like an actual mall that you could go into and spend the day shopping at.  Everything seemed like something you could see if you went to your local mall.  Well, depending on where you live.  It might be more upscale or less upscale than your local mall.  You probably know what I mean though.  It seems like it existed.  They might have used real malls to portray it, which would work to their benefit.  Or they made a set that looked extremely good.  Either way, the setting worked.  It’s about the only thing in the movie that really worked for me.
Fabio sighting!
There’s not much more that I have to say about Scenes from a Mall.  If I continue, it will turn into negative ranting, which I really don’t want it to be.  I didn’t like the movie.  That’s that.

Up next in the Marathon of Shops is The Shop Around the Corner.  This will be the second last movie of the entire marathon.  I’m nearing the end.  And that’s all I have to say about that.

I thought this was a fitting image for the movie and the writeup.

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