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By
NICK ZEGARAC
"Beaches" is the story of a
chance meeting between two little girls, the
wealthy Hilary Whitney (Marcie Leeds at age 11,
Barbara Hershey as an adult) and the decidedly
lowbrow C.C. Bloom (Mayem Bialik at age 11, Bette
Midler as an adult).
C.C. is a child starlet with loads of talent and
an overzealous stage mother, Leona (Lainie Kazan),
pushing her through the door of one schlock child
producer after another. However, C.C. is short on
good looks, thus her road to eventual stardom is
often hampered by agents and directors who can't
see immeasurable talent behind the average facade.
Meanwhile, Hilary is being groomed for a hollow
and pampered existence with the cultured elite.
Despite their worlds apart backgrounds, the two
girls develop a lifelong friendship through letter
writing after their initial meeting under the
boardwalk at Atlantic City.
When Hilary arrives on C.C.'s doorstep -- all
grown up -- C.C. welcomes her with open arms. But
a bitter battle over off-Broadway producer John
Pierce (John Heard) leaves their friendship on
shaky ground. Hilary returns, dejected, to her
life of privilege, marrying attorney Michael Essex
(James Read). He ultimately turns out to be a cad.
After both C.C. and Hilary divorce the latter
learns that she has been stricken with a fatal
heart condition and asks for both forgiveness and
the aid of a true friend to look after her during
the twilight of her life.
In retrospect one wonders what all the fuss was
about with this schmaltz laden, overacted trifle.
Yet, upon its initial release, "Beaches" became
"the" summer blockbuster, out grossing almost
every other film of 1988. Yes, it's terribly
contrived and not very realistic. But word to the
wise: bring Kleenex in advance. This is one of
those slickly packaged and even more slickly
marketed Touchstone films that are irresistible.
Midler gets a chance to sing some truly awful
tunes and one genuine show stopper -- "Wind
Beneath My Wings" -- that has since become the
most requested bride/father of the bride dance
song at nearly every wedding I've attended.
Touchstone Home Video gives us "Beaches" in
anamorphic widescreen and that's pretty much it.
While the colors have dated and slightly faded,
the transfer is generally smooth with minimal edge
enhancement. There is no aliasing. Fine detail is
lost in darker scenes and there's a considerable
amount of grain throughout. The soundtrack is
typical 80's 2.0 surround. There's some nice
spread during the musical sequences but overall
this is a very dated soundtrack. There are no
extras on this disc. |
