Beaches (1988)

_**Entertaining “Chick flick” with Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey**_ Two preadolescent girls meet on the beach and become lifelong friends living on two different coasts. The brassy CC Bloom (Bette Midler) is a performer living in New York City while the classy, but reserved Hillary (Barbara Hershey) lives on the West Coast. Bubbly Mayim Bialik appears as the 11 year-old version of CC in the opening act while likable John Heard has a fairly notable part. “Beaches” (1988) is an 80’s “chick flick” that throws in drama, realistic comedy, romance, Broadway entertainment and music. It’s also known as a tearjerker, but it didn’t literally move me in that sense, although I’m sure it would some people. It effectively shows the ups and downs of a long-lasting friendship. Fans of Midler or Hershey will no doubt like it more than me. The film runs 2 hours, 3 minutes, and was shot California and New York City. GRADE: B-/C+

"Beaches" is an earnest and well meaning film throughout that always favours the overbearing and self important Bette Midler at the expense of the much more insipid Barbara Hershey as it endeavours to tackle the notion of a friendship which spans decades and supersedes all other considerations, but such a misplaced and lofty ambition as this is often an almost impossible aspiration to realistically achieve during a two hour period so we are consequently rushed through a sketchy succession of highs and lows of two lives with no real sense of any emotional bonds developing or being ruthlessly torn asunder during the passing decades and no opportunity to really get to know about any of the characters and subsequently there is no reason to care about what happens to any of them in an unmemorable and superficial film which is an amazing underachievement on every level.

There's something quite uncanny about the resemblance between the young "CC" (Mayim Mialik) and Bette Midler who plays her adult self in this quite touching story of lifelong friendship. That all starts when this ordinary youngster meets the well-heeled "Hillary" (Marcie Leeds then Barbara Hershey) and despite being from opposite sides of the tracks, they begin to bond. The former has a love of all things showbiz but isn't exactly getting her name up in lights as she gets older. Her friend had a much better starting position and builds up a successful legal career as well as having a daughter with a man that they are both rather keen on! Things take a much more serious turn for the couple, though, when some bad news puts all of their lives in a perspective that requires both women to readjust for what's now inevitable. It's one of those stories that shows quite effectively how difficult lifelong friendships can be to maintain. They write to each other, they meet now and again, but it's never a straightforward momentum that keeps them aligned nor one that prepares them for what life throws at them. The characterisation of "CC" allows for Midler to belt out a few memorable numbers along the way - "Wind Beneath My Wings" and "Under the Boardwalk" maybe being the two best suited for her powerful vocals and it stays just the right side of sentiment allowing the pair to portray quite distinctly powerful characters emotionally, sometimes comically, and engagingly.