Beaches

barbara hershey, bette midler, drama, garry marshall, james read, john heard, lainie kazan, spalding gray, weepy

bit of a gurly film, this one - my daughter and I still will settle down with a box of choccies and a bottle of wine, together with a box of tissues each, and have a good howl over this one.

Amazon editorial review Garry Marshall's 1988 drama about a 30-year friendship between two women, one wealthy (Barbara Hershey) and the other (Bette Midler) seeking her fortune in show business, is well written (based on the novel by Iris Rainer Dart) and nicely textured in its contrast between the characters' separate destinies. When Hershey becomes ill with cancer, the film takes a predictably sentimental course, yet Marshall brings out the best in both actresses and catches some very fine drama. Beaches is a little too long, perhaps, but overall it is a fine experience. --Tom Keogh