Beaches

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Beaches

PG-13,

1988,

2h 3m,

Drama

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Watchlist

Watchlist

41%

46 Reviews

Tomatometer

88%

50,000+ Ratings

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

Mar 23, 2018

2.5/4

Barbara Hershey is wasted in a boring role.

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Jay Boyar

Orlando Sentinel

Mar 23, 2018

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

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Kim Newman

Empire Magazine

Mar 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, 2025

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

May 7, 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

Aug 8, 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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Jan 27, 2019

The best movie song ever sung: Wind Beneath My Wings!

Finn M

Nov 11, 2018

Despite what critic reviews have to say, I found myself drawn into Beaches, just like many others who have seen this classic. Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey's personalities mix and mash just as their characters are supposed to on screen. Though it can be melodramatic at times, Beaches will surely bring the waterworks in the end.

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Hermione P

Nov 8, 2018

Great friendship movie. Makes me cry every time I watch it.

Rey M

Oct 9, 2018

wind beneath my wings always makes me cry and reminds me of my aunty who sadly got taken away from us too soon

Finn L

Sep 15, 2018

I love this film. I love the music. I love the emotions. Everything. It was short and sweet, but there wasn't alot of drama and emotions shown before the...and there wasn't an emotional finding out of..... Your have to see the film. One of my new favorite films. 4 stars maybe 4 and a half.

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Hagrid P

Apr 13, 2018

heartbreaking in the best way

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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

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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

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