{"id":2750,"date":"2025-08-01T01:33:02","date_gmt":"2025-08-01T05:33:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=2750"},"modified":"2026-05-20T18:11:56","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T22:11:56","slug":"beaches-1988","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=2750","title":{"rendered":"Beaches-1988"},"content":{"rendered":"

Beaches-1988<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director Garry Marshall<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starring Bette Midler, Barbara Hershey<\/strong><\/p>\n

Top 250 Films #162<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Scott’s Review #352<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Reviewed January 9, 2016<\/p>\n

Grade: A<\/strong><\/p>\n

Beaches (1988) is a film that can easily be described as sentimental, sappy, and a chick flick- all in a derogatory fashion- but that, regardless, is a treasure to me.<\/p>\n

I fall for this tearjerker every single time that I watch it.<\/p>\n

It is not necessarily a great film, not high art, nor particularly edgy, but a good, old-fashioned, conventional film about friendship.<\/p>\n

Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey give the film believability, whereas other similar films would appear contrived.<\/p>\n

C.C. Bloom (Midler) and Hillary Whitney (Hershey) are lifelong friends from opposite backgrounds. Besides, they could not have more opposite personalities. C.C. is blue-collar, outrageous, and brash; Hillary is demure, rich, and sophisticated.<\/p>\n

We meet our friends as young girls on the boardwalk of Atlantic City, C.C., hiding from her overbearing stage Mom, and Hillary is lost and wandering the boardwalk.<\/p>\n

The two become fast friends despite their vastly different upbringings and stay connected through life’s ups and downs for over thirty years.<\/p>\n

The chemistry between Midler and Hershey is great. I completely buy them as best friends through the years, despite having little in common.<\/p>\n

Throughout their tender, emotional scenes and the knock-down-drag-out fight at the mall (a fantastic scene!), there is never a doubt about what they have.<\/p>\n

They compete over a man, which ordinarily is a lame plot device, but in Beaches, it works because the two stars make it work.<\/p>\n

Each actress puts her mark on the individual role. Midler’s C.C. is arrogant, feisty, and interesting as she begins as a “have-not” and becomes a “have”.<\/p>\n

She becomes spoiled and pampered- all of the things she envies about Hillary. She does not handle wealth as well as Hillary because she lacks education. Hillary, an attorney, is classy and graceful.<\/p>\n

These characteristics make it believable that the women would be at odds.<\/p>\n

The last act is a weepy one as one of the women dies, leaving the other to pick up the pieces and move on- alone. This is a sad moment in the film, but the women’s devotion and loyalty are admirable.<\/p>\n

Beaches (1988) may not be high art, but boy, will it get you reaching for the tissues.<\/p>\n

Oscar Nominations:\u00a0<\/strong>Best Art Direction<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Beaches-1988 Director Garry Marshall Starring Bette Midler, Barbara Hershey Top 250 Films #162 Scott’s Review #352 Reviewed January 9, 2016 Grade: A Beaches (1988) is a film that can easily be described as sentimental, sappy, and a chick flick- all in a derogatory fashion- but that, regardless, is a treasure to me. I fall for … Continue reading Beaches-1988<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7816,22,821,1537,49,192,362,1602,1336,11190,8572,1222,2266,11189,11191,7464],"tags":[7817,71,822,1540,252,193,363,1603,1339,11193,8577,1225,2271,11192,11194,7460],"class_list":["post-2750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-162-favorite-film","category-1988-films","category-barbara-hershey","category-bette-midler","category-comedies","category-dramas","category-favorite-film-of-the-year","category-garry-marshall","category-hector-elizondo","category-james-read","category-jenifer-lewis","category-john-heard","category-lainie-kazan","category-mayim-bialik","category-spalding-gray","category-top-250-films","tag-162-favorite-film","tag-1988-movie-reviews","tag-barbara-hershey","tag-bette-midler","tag-comedies","tag-dramas-2","tag-favorite-film-of-the-year","tag-garry-marshall","tag-hector-elizondo","tag-james-read","tag-jenifer-lewis","tag-john-heard","tag-lainie-kazan","tag-mayim-bialik","tag-spalding-gray","tag-top-250-films"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2750","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2750"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2750\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23178,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2750\/revisions\/23178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2750"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2750"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2750"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}