Get out the hankies: weepies from the Eighties - Beaches

Beaches (1988)

Director: Garry Marshall

Writers: Mary Agnes Donoughe, Iris Rainer (novel)

Starring: Bette Midler, Barbara Hershey

Runtime: 123 minutes

Certification: 12A

Rating: 3/5

Did you ever know that you’re my hero,

and everything I would like to be?

I can fly higher than an eagle,

‘cause you are the wind beneath my wings...

...sang Bette Midler at this year’s 86th Academy Awards during the ‘In Memoriam’ segment of the ceremony. The smash-hit, Grammy-winning song was forever immortalised as it started playing in the end-credits scene of Beaches, Garry Marshall’s film looking at the unlikely but beautiful friendship between two completely different women.

Successful singer/actress CC Bloom (Bette Midler) is forced to run out of her rehearsal to rush back to San Francisco, where her best friend Hillary (Barbara Hershey) has troubling news for her. Then begins CC’s reminiscing of the good old days, starting with when the two ladies met as little girls (Mayim Bialik (The Big Bang Theory’s Amy Farrah Fowler as a child actress) and Marcie Leeds) on a...you guessed it...beach.

Back in the days when there were no emails, facebook, or much technology to help with human communication, people actually wrote letters. That is how C and Hillary keep in touch throughout the movie. Updating each other on the ups and downs of their professional and personal lives, the two spend just as much time apart on screen, as they do together.

Both Midler and Hershey appear more than comfortable in their roles. Midler is the wild child, living it up in New York struggling in the entertainment industry, doing bit jobs until she gets to the top. CC does not take herself too seriously (she even agrees to dress in a hilarious bunny costume to sing someone a “happy birthday” to earn some cash), and this shows in Midler’s casual, humourous performance that is as loud as it is jolly. Hershey is a little more reserved. Her rich family background keeps her more subdued and calm, and as she pursues a law degree, she does so with peace and quiet.

Throughout the film it becomes more and more evident that the story’s shift is undeniably leaning towards following CC. Midler is given the juicier subplots, she obviously gets all the singing scenes (there are quite a few, not quite sure why there are so many), and her larger-than-life character threatens to sideline the other crucial half of this friendship. Midler has always been good at those bold, brassy roles, and it comes as no surprise that she once again knocks it out fo the park here. Even Mayim Bialik, who looks remarkably convincing as a young Bette Midler, portraying CC as an 11-year-old, matches the gutso and energy. But this means that we see absolutely nothing of Hillary’s supposed success in the legal world, there are a few brief scenes of her married life, but for the most part, the only time the audience gets to see Hillary talk is when the two ladies decide to get together for a meet-up.

But when the two of them are in the same frame, the chemistry between the pair is impeccable. They have their share of fights, about the silliest of things, something they both admit eventually, and it’s what is shown in the ever-changing dynamic of this unique friendship that keeps us occupied during the running time. What comes between the two friends? Sometimes it’s a man’s affection, other times it’s jealousy over certain character traits. The fight and make up, fight and make up, in what sounds like repetitive plotting, but when the two leads are this fun to watch, it’s hardly a chore.

There are so many bleedingly obvious clues embedded in the script that once the big sad surprise comes, the chances are, the intended effect would have been diminished in the unnecessarily long build-up. But it’s thanks to the excellent performances from the leads that it still manages to pack in quite a punch. And once that song starts playing, it will be difficult to hold back the tears. This is textbook pure shameless audience manipulation, even the warm, fuzzy, hazy flashback in the closing scenes is hardly subtle, but it’s something that is worth partially forgiving, given the rather beautiful story it tells.

Fly, fly, fly high against the sky

so high I almost touch the sky.

Thank you, thank you,

Thank God for you, the wind beneath my wings