Beaches

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Beaches

PG-13

1988

2h 3m

Drama

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

41%

Tomatometer

46 Reviews

88%

Popcornmeter

50,000+ Ratings

Hillary (Barbara Hershey) and CC (Bette Midler) meet as children vacationing in Atlantic City, N.J., and remain friends throughout the decades. As CC, a loud New Yorker, pursues a singing career, Hillary, a staid Californian, becomes a successful lawyer. Over the years, they often quarrel or compete, but, as other relationships flourish and die, the two women are always there for each other, traveling from coast to coast through the most tumultuous times.

Critics Consensus

Not all great soundtracks make good movies, and Beaches lacks the wind beneath its wings.

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Gene Siskel

Chicago Tribune

03/23/2018

2.5/4

Barbara Hershey is wasted in a boring role.

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Jay Boyar

Orlando Sentinel

03/23/2018

Anything for a laugh, anything for a tear, and nothing much authentic.

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Kim Newman

Empire Magazine

03/23/2018

3/5

Beaches epitomises the sort of triple-strength, three-hankie work you can expect from American women with three names and gives the lie to those who thought they stopped making women's pic heartstring-tuggers.

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Richard Freedman

Newark Star-Ledger

Dec 30

1.5/4

With the possible exception of Hershey, just about everyone in "Beaches" is pretty painful to watch.

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Quentin Crisp

Christopher Street

05/07/2024

In Beaches, Miss Midler and Miss Hershey wrangle, forgive, embrace, part, and reunite until I found their antics difficult to comprehend, difficult to believe, and finally difficult to bear.

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Jeffrey Lyons

Video Review

08/08/2022

3/4

Once in a while it's okay to enjoy a movie for its own sake -- to let it work you over emotionally, to make you cry when you know you're supposed to cry and laugh when you know a laugh is coming. Beaches is such a movie.

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William T.

@Will1 6d

If you want your heart ripped out of your chest watch this movie. If you don’t, watch Airplane.

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Marvel N

@MarvelNerd May 25

When I heard that a Broadway show of this was on it's way, I wanted to go immediately. We kept waiting and waiting and waiting for the right time to go. We thought of June! I was so excited as I had never seen the movie but I new Jessica Vosk was Cee Cee Bloom! But then... they cut it short. I ended up not being able to go see it on Broadway so I settled for the original film. While there is a lot of "filler", I really believe that this friendship is shown very well. It's certainly worth a watch.

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Melissa M

@Lisey May 17

This movie has a lot of talkity talk. It's interesting dialogue. And it holds your interest which is a good thing because it's a very long film. Garry Marshall was one of the best directors & riders of all time. He could do comedy as well as drama. The movie Chronicles 2 young girls from completely different backgrounds. Hillary is from a rich upper class family. CC is a tough talking girl who comes from Brooklyn. Most of the movie is like one giant long montage. It starts with them as young girls, then preteens & finally fully grown adults. Whose lives go in two completely different directions. There's a lot of narration through letter writing. The movie is very wordy. But it's heart warming & heartfelt. Don't want to give away too much of the movie. no spoiler alerts. It's one of those films no matter how many times you see it. There gets to a certain point in the movie, where you know you're going to need a box of tissues to dry your eyes.

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Edward B

@EdwardicusB May 17

The first 10 minutes were heartwarming, and the last 30 minutes are a tear-jerker. In between, it was at it's best a mediocre film. A great example of "I'm glad I saw it once, but I'll never watch it again."

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Natasha R

@MsNatasha Apr 12

I was very excited to watch this movie - I love a good story of female friendship. But I felt like each milestone in life was rushed.

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Stephen C

@bob25009 Mar 18

A success on home media.

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Garry Marshall

Director

Bette Midler

Cecilia 'CC' Carol Bloom

Barbara Hershey

Hillary Whitney Essex

John Heard

John Pierce

Spalding Gray

Dr. Richard Milstein

Lainie Kazan

Leona Bloom

Stella

29%

76%

Stella

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Synopsis

Hillary (Barbara Hershey) and CC (Bette Midler) meet as children vacationing in Atlantic City, N.J., and remain friends throughout the decades. As CC, a loud New Yorker, pursues a singing career, Hillary, a staid Californian, becomes a successful lawyer. Over the years, they often quarrel or compete, but, as other relationships flourish and die, the two women are always there for each other, traveling from coast to coast through the most tumultuous times.

Director: Garry Marshall
Producer: Margaret South, Bette Midler, Bonnie Bruckheimer
Screenwriter: Mary Agnes Donoghue
Distributor: Touchstone Pictures
Production Co: Touchstone Pictures, Silver Screen Partners IV, All Girl Productions
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Dec 21, 1988, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 1, 2014
Box Office (Gross USA): $56.4M
Runtime: 2h 3m
Sound Mix: Surround