Gawd This Movie I Awful!!! So superficial. So fake. Such a vehicle for Bette Midler. And she is horrible as herself. And these contrived scenes after "she made it big" in the movie. Poorly directed scenes and no character development for Barbara Hershey and James Read. The onslaught of press when it came out, i.e. Oprah and the like was a major RED FLAG! This movie was an assault on the eyes, ears, and heart of anyone with a brain. Oy Vey!!!

I love the movie Beaches so much I bought it on Amazon. Hillary dies of cardiomyopathy in the movie and that's what I have. I watch her sitting outside her beach house or sitting in her pajamas and I think about myself. Also, her last scene in the hospital gasping for air reminds me of myself when I was in the hospital. In the movie, Hillary says you know I can't walk that far when C.C. asks her to go for lobsters. Well, I have the same problem. Whoever made this movie knew what they were talking about when they show Hillary's cardiomyopathy. I just love this movie so much because it shows an accurate description of Hillary's illness. I felt bad for her daughter, Victoria also.

Two young girls meet whilst on holiday in Atlantic city. Tho both of them are from vastly different backgrounds they strike up a friendship that will literally last a lifetime.Directed by Gary Marshall, Beaches is adapted by Mary Agnes Donoghue from Iris Rainer Dart's novel, and stars Bette Midler & Barbara Hershey as the two female protagonists taking on the trials and tribulations of life and friendship. Unashamedly a hankie dampener first and foremost, Beaches is ever watchable in spite of its over sentimental structure and reliance on clichés at every turn. Tho it at times feels like an excuse for Midler to flex her lungs, her character thankfully calls for her to show some range. Which she duly delivers thru a number of emotional crises' and a battle against her own innate selfishness. Hershey is perfect foil, a touch classy, fashionable and truly heartfelt as the finale draws in like some dark party pooper. The guys in the girls loves come an go, and by and large they are stereotypically drawn. Each one serving only to bring the girls closer together. While the ending itself, backed up by the wonderful Midler rendition of "Wind Beneath My Wings," is nicely handled and has an air of dignity about it.It's another film in the long line of film's made to tug the heartstrings. Specifically in this case, those belonging to the ladies. So with that, as a guy myself, I felt a touch alienated by the movies approach work. But be that as it may, there's no denying the impact the piece can have if one is prepared to commit emotionally to it. At times funny, and even breezy for a large portion of its running time, Beaches lives or dies by its final quarter. With that, it's a winner that ultimately has achieved all it set out to do. 6.5/10

This is a decent enough exploration of the lifelong friendship between two very different women, CC (Bette Midler) and Hillary (Barbara Hershey.) Meeting as children on a beach in Atlantic City, CC and Hillary are about as different as they can possibly be, but they establish a bond which for many years is basically a pen-pal relationship until they reconnect. By then, CC is a struggling actress, and Hillary has given up her rich lifestyle to become a lawyer for the ACLU. Both change over the years, CC becoming a mega star and Hillary, returning to the rich lifestyle, a frustrated housewife to an adulterous husband. Their connection remains, though, although it goes through many ups and downs over the course of the years.For the first two thirds of the movie I was a bit frustrated with this. There seemed to be little point to it except to portray the friendship, which wasn't all that exciting, the differences between CC and Hillary notwithstanding. The last third of the movie, though, finally demonstrates what the value of their friendship is, and director Garry Marshall manages to use that last third of the movie to lift it out of mediocrity and turn this into a pretty decent, tug at the heartstrings type of film.Others may well disagree on this point, but I found the biggest weakness here was the chemistry between Midler and Hershey. They are both fine actresses, but I just didn't feel the connection between them that I would have expected, given the nature of the friendship they were portraying. They came across to me as actresses playing friends, but somehow the authenticity of the relationship was missing. Kudos, though, to the young Mayim Bialik. She went on to modest success, mostly in TV, but demonstrated brilliant talent here playing the young CC in the early part of the film. This takes a while to really get going, but in the end, it's a moving and sensitive film about the value of friendship. 6/10