Beaches

Year: 1988

Grade: C+

Country: USA

Director: Marshall

Review

it doesn’t leave a dry (female) eye in the house. this is possibly the consummate chick flick, the film that defines the genre, the film that stands among the shit pile, if you will. in all seriousness, most chick flicks are pretty trite and lack subtlety, character development, quality writing, etc. this one, though, isn’t all bad. the performances are good, the writing is solid enough and it tells a poignant story. that’s not to say that i really enjoyed it, but i’m not the target demographic so winning me over wasn’t really at the forefront of the filmmakers’ collective mind. if you take out the bette midler performances you have a fairly harmless tear-jerker with some good moments. i found it to be an accurate representation of a certain kind of relationship. midler and hershey are best friends and are willing to drop everything in their life for each other, but they also get on each other’s nerves more than anyone else. in her shoes captured this sentiment in a more entertaining and moving way for me, but this one is considered a classic by many so i guess that’s saying something. it’s a good enough film, but not one that i really want to see again. if you’re into this sort of film you’ll likely give it a full grade higher than the it receives from me.