Beaches
After receiving some disturbing news, CC Bloom (Bette Midler) abandons her upcoming music concert and travels across the country. As she drives her car, she recalls when she, then an aspiring starlet, first met a lost girl, Hillary Essex (Barbara Hershey), on a beach thirty years ago. Instantly developing a friendship, the two girls would not see each other in person again for several years, but stayed in contact through letters. Hillary, now a college student, decides to put her law studies on hold and move to New York City to find CC, who is working as a lounge singer and struggling actress, and who instantly takes Hillary under her wing.
Okay, I have to admit that I'm a sucker for these sugary melodramas (as long as they are done well, like 'Steel Magnolias'), but 'Beaches' is more sugar substitute than anything. Every moment of the film is designed for maximum emotional effect, and you can literally feel Garry Marshall stuffing the onions up to your eyes during the final act. It's just so manipulative and trite. 'Beaches' is lost in a sea of marriages, divorces, babies, terminal illnesses, and everything else that you're likely to find in your average television movie of the week. Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey are alright, but they're mismatched, and the child actresses that play their characters at the beginning of the film are a lot better. There's one mildly moving moment, where Midler's song "Wind Beneath My Wings" is used, but that moment was never earned. I really thought I'd like this movie, but it ends up that it may be the second most annoyingly corny movie ever after 'My Girl'.
~ 4/10 ~
After receiving some disturbing news, CC Bloom (Bette Midler) abandons her upcoming music concert and travels across the country. As she drives her car, she recalls when she, then an aspiring starlet, first met a lost girl, Hillary Essex (Barbara Hershey), on a beach thirty years ago. Instantly developing a friendship, the two girls would not see each other in person again for several years, but stayed in contact through letters. Hillary, now a college student, decides to put her law studies on hold and move to New York City to find CC, who is working as a lounge singer and struggling actress, and who instantly takes Hillary under her wing.
Okay, I have to admit that I'm a sucker for these sugary melodramas (as long as they are done well, like 'Steel Magnolias'), but 'Beaches' is more sugar substitute than anything. Every moment of the film is designed for maximum emotional effect, and you can literally feel Garry Marshall stuffing the onions up to your eyes during the final act. It's just so manipulative and trite. 'Beaches' is lost in a sea of marriages, divorces, babies, terminal illnesses, and everything else that you're likely to find in your average television movie of the week. Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey are alright, but they're mismatched, and the child actresses that play their characters at the beginning of the film are a lot better. There's one mildly moving moment, where Midler's song "Wind Beneath My Wings" is used, but that moment was never earned. I really thought I'd like this movie, but it ends up that it may be the second most annoyingly corny movie ever after 'My Girl'.
~ 4/10 ~