To me, this movie is perfection.

How sad is this?

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

The ambitious singer CC and the rich, but shy Hillary meet as 11-year olds, and embark on a life-long friendship, throughout relationships and splits, career ups and downs, romantic rivalries, financial rollercoasters and, ultimately, a dose of Glamorous Hollywood Fatal Disease.This film is a tearjerker chickflick of some renown, and I have never seen it until now (2016) despite in being released 28 years ago. This has not been deliberate: I may not be part of the target demographic for tearjerker chickflicks, but I am not closed to their appeal. In fact, I was quite looking forward to shedding a tear or two, and the old bottom lip quivered from time to time in anticipation as the rather soapy events of the story unfolded.And then it got to the point where the inevitable took place, and I sat there, resolutely unmoved. Given that the whole point of the movie was, well, you know what the point was, I felt that it was delivered with such tasteful lack of obviousness that it carried little emotional weight. I know that this is not the case for others, but I was quite disappointed not to feel more.Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey are both fine.

Under the Boardwalk, Down by the Sea....With one of the most magical musical moments to open a film, Bette Midler immediately shows what she has in star quality after a series of fun comedies which made her one of the biggest box office queens of the late 1980's. "Beaches", like "The Rose" years before, proved she could do drama, and here she mixes in a spiky personality for great comic effect. Who else could sing a song like "Otto Titsling" and get away with it, lyrics like "Do you buy a titsling or do you buy a brazieere?", one of the most delightfully campy songs in film history. She also gets to sing the Cole Porter standard "I've Still Got My Health" (a song originated by Ethel Merman in "Panama Hattie") and of course her huge hit, "Wind Beneath My Wings", the ode to her character's friendship with the dying Barbara Hershey, a divorced wife and mother who she's known since she was little.C.C. Bloom is her name and tight red curls are her game. She goes from singing telegram girl to Broadway star all the while remaining close to sweet Hilary, the rich girl she met under the boardwalk. The film isn't about the men in their life, rather the devotion these two have to each other that undergoes many obstacles but endures in spite of everything and gives C.C. the opportunity to show what a true friend is really all about. Mayim Bialik plays the young C.C. as if she was Bette shrunken down to a tot and lead her to the lead role in T.V.'s "Blossom". Lainie Kazan makes the most of her role as Bette's overly loving mother who realizes she didn't have enough to give for the attention-starved C.C. John Heard is the man who only briefly comes between the two friends, but when you've got a friendship as deep as these two, it will take more than just a man to break that up. Keep your Kleenex handy; The conclusion is the ultimate tearjerker in the shade of "Terms of Endearment", "The Color Purple" and "Steel Magnolias".

My mom told me about this film ages ago and I seen it on TV twice before and let me tell yeah that this movie was so so sad to watch I literally cried every time I watch and hear that song Wind Beneath My Wings(yeah that is hands down the saddest songs of ALL time for me as it moves me and i always cry at it).The movie tells the tale of two best friends who meet up in Atlantic Beach and knew each other since they were kids. Now as adults one of them is a singer while the other isn't but she is hiding something from her best friend,she has this condition that the doctors can't help her with and she has a few months to live.Bottom line if you are like me a big softie who gets easily upset over movies involving dad's dying,animals dying or if you lost a loved one. Then check out Beaches.

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