BEFORE: I'm still reeling from the annual change to DST - Daylight Stupid Time. I've ranted about it many times before, so I'll spare you the usual complaining. But, why does this always happen on a weekend? Why can't we lose an hour from a Monday? Nobody likes Mondays anyway...
Taking a break from the Mia Farrow chain, this is a solo Woody acting effort - Mia links to Woody through any of their many co-starring roles...
THE PLOT: On their 16th anniversary, a married couple's trip to a Beverly Hills mall becomes the stage for personal revelations and deceptions.
AFTER: It seems like a logical conclusion, based on all that has come before, that there are only three parts of a relationship that Woody Allen finds interesting: the initial contact, having an affair, and confessing the affair. Even though Woody did not write or direct this film, it touches on the last of the three, as a man and wife reveal their affairs to each other while shopping.
At this point, it might be a little difficult to determine where art imitates life, and vice versa. I'd love to hear the backstory behind making this film, a departure in that it's set far from Woody's usual New York locale, and even though he was still with Mia Farrow when this was shot, one has to wonder about at what point his eyes started to stray. And yet they still made two more films together.
Like "Alice", this is a film about rich people, professional people, and how unsatisfied they are, and how caught up they are in material objects. More Bergman references tonight, apparently to a film called "Scenes From a Marriage", which gives me no frame of reference.
The mall, however, is used as a framing device - which manages to be clever where the story isn't. There are so many different places to put this married couple - various stores, restaurants, escalators, the parking garage - each with its own set of props and challenges. A cappella groups, breakdancers and an annoying mime (is there any other kind?) complete the background scenes.
It's an Allenesque portrait of the way that two people separate, and perhaps come together again. Which feels somewhat natural, however in being natural it also doesn't reach for anything extraordinary.
I caught the last half hour of "Hannah and Her Sisters" on cable after this film, and it reminded me why I love that film so much. It feels like the ultimate expression of all of the Woody Allen tropes - the family of neurotic New Yorkers, the introspection about religion and death, jazz music, writer's block, and people having affairs. It's like all the other Allen films got distilled down to their essences and concentrated. It will be hard for any Woody Allen film to top that one, for me.
NITPICK POINT: I realize it's something of a contrivance to keep them at the mall longer, but after getting their car towed, I doubt most people would go back in and shop more. This felt really out of character - most people would then turn their focus to finding out where their car got towed to, and what they need to do to get it back.
Also starring Bette Midler (last seen in "Down and Out in Beverly Hills"), Bill Irwin, (last seen in "A Midsummer Night's Dream") Paul Mazursky, Marc Shaiman, with cameos from Fabio, Soon-Yi Previn (uh-oh...)
RATING: 3 out of 10 frozen yogurts
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