"It's a miracle we lasted this long," says sports lawyer Nick to his wife Deborah, a psychologist, on their 16th wedding anniversary in Scenes From A Mall, a Touchstone Pictures Release. With both kids away at camp, this California couple head off to the mall to pick up their gifts for each other and the sushi for their anniversary party with friends. All the submerged resentments, slights, and dislike of each other's personality quirks come to the fore when Nick casually admits that he has just ended an affair with another woman. After responding in shock and then anger, Deborah reveals that she's had a lover as well. In the anonymity of the mall's crowds, this couple manage to verbally abuse each other, reconcile briefly, fight some more, purchase new clothes, dance, and then resume the debate on the viability of their relationship.

In Scenes From A Mall, co-writer and director Paul Mazursky presents an anatomy of a marriage shattered by betrayal, distrust, and disappointment. By verbalizing their disagreements and acting out their anger, Woody Allen as Nick and Bette Midler as Deborah realize that the investment in each other and in their partnership as parents is worth salvaging. Mazursky helps us to see that keeping love alive in a marriage that has fallen short of perfection demands as big a leap of faith as the initial step of falling in love.