❝Beaches❞

MOVIE REVIEW OF ❝Beaches❞ (1988) PG-13

Cast
Director:	garry marshall	Runtime: 2 hrs 3 min (123 min)
c. c. bloom	.....	bette midler
hillary whitney essex	.....	barbara hershey
john pierce	.....	john heard
dr. richard milstein	.....	spalding gray
leona bloom	.....	lainie kazan
michael essex	.....	james read
victoria essex	.....	grace johnston
c. c. bloom (age 11)	.....	mayim bialik
hillary essex (age 11)	.....	marcie leeds
aunt vesta	.....	carol williard
mr. melman	.....	allan kent
sammy pinkers	.....	phil leeds
mrs. myandowski	.....	linda goodfriend
iris myandowski	.....	nikki plant
head waiter	.....	michael french
harry	.....	robert ball
doorman	.....	frank campanella
marjorie	.....	diane frazen
seedy bar patron	.....	michael elias
t. kuhn	.....	patrick richwood
department store clerk	.....	tracy reiner
ACLU worker	.....	zachary weintraub
tavern on the green maitre d'	.....	nicky blair
tavern on the green doorman	.....	joshua levinson
phillip de brassiere	.....	steven majewicz
otto titsling	.....	joe grifasi
TV interviewer	.....	lucinda crosby
lawyer	.....	jack w. larson
screaming woman	.....	judith baldwin
maura	.....	doris hess
hillary's neighbor	.....	jane dulo
michael's mistress	.....	lisa savage
doctor	.....	frank buxton
pink palm bartender	.....	steve restivo
horse teacher	.....	maureen jennings
delivery room nurse #1	.....	kathi marshall
delivery room nurse #2	.....	julie paris
i. c. u. nurse #1	.....	clara huff
i. c. u. nurse #2	.....	barbara marshall
car rental agent	.....	scott marshall
airport attendant	.....	cindy riegel
ticket seller	.....	mariann aalda
hollywood bowl stage manager	.....	bo sabato
miami limo driver	.....	michael a. salcido
miss valdez	.....	ann betancourt
man in bagels	.....	harvey keenan
limo driver	.....	lugene britton
hollywood bowl backup singer #1	.....	arnold mcCuller
hollywood bowl backup singer #2	.....	carla earle
hollywood bowl backup singer #3	.....	katherine singleton
cowboy actor	.....	ken gibble
the movie director	.....	harvey alan miller

Divas
jennifer jeanette lewis		charlotte crossley		julie burrows		kimberly morgan
andrea paris		adrienne parker

Peasants
melissa bremner		laura freemont		charles mcGowan		todd niles
caitlin mcLean		ken miller		bill bohl

Actors
mona lyden		bill applebaum		eddie mekka		karen calabro
keith mcDaniel		david michael giugni

Uncredited
judge	.....	hector elizondo		pianist	.....	marc shatman
fisherman	.....	don feldstein		twin cousin #1	.....	lori sigrist
tom	.....	whit hartford		twin cousin #2	.....	terri sigrist
audition director	.....	garry marshall

WARNING: THE NEXT SECTIONS MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS…

WHAT I KNOW

I apologize for the extensive narrative of the movie. I got ranting about it, and wanted to make sure that you didn't miss out on something good. I still want you to see this movie, but you're off the hook this time if you don't. BUT ONLY THIS ONCE!!

The movie opens with C.C. Bloom (Better Midler) rehearsing "Under the Boardwalk" on a stage at the Hollywood Bowl. She is handed a note by one of the stage hands. Her expression quicky turns serious and she says she's got to go to the airport immediately. Rain and fog render flights grounded, so she ends up driving a rental car. As she is driving, she is remembering her childhood, and so the story begins…

An 11-year-old girl sits on a wooden staircase up to the boardwalk in Atlantic City and starts to cry. From under the stairs, 11-year-old C.C. Bloom (Mayim Bialik) is smoking a cigarette and asks the girl if she's lost. C.C. takes the girl back to her hotel after she introduces herself as if everyone in the world knows her. She is a performer with a very pushy (but funny) mother. She is insulted when the girl (Marcie Leeds) doesn't know who she is. The girl introduces herself as Hillary Whitney.

C.C.'s mother, Leona (Lainie Kazan) comes looking for her to tell her that a Hollywood talent scout wants to put her in his movie. Hillary goes with C.C. and her mother to audition for Mr. Melman (Allan Kent) and Sammy Pinkers (Phil Leeds). She sings "The Glory of Love" very well, but is upset because next up is her rival, Iris Myandowski (Nikki Plant), who performs a cheesy hand-walking routine with a red, white, and blue theme. But, of course, she's a…"beautiful child," so Iris gets the part.

C.C. is very upset, and is more than happy when her mother suggests they just pack up and go back to the Bronx. But first, Hillary and C.C. have some fun on the beach at Atantic City. Then then go to get a soda, but Hillary takes C.C. to a ritzy restaurant where they are asked to leave. Hillary convinces the maitre d' they can stay. When C.C. asks how she did that, Hillary relies that it was easy because her father is rich.

C.C. goes back to the Bronx and Hillary goes back to California. They write each other constantly for years after.

As they grow up, Hillary is rich, but not happy. She has everything money can buy, but gets tired of having to be so ‘proper.’ C.C., while hating most of the things that most kids hate, (e.g. school) loves life and having fun.

Years later, the girls are still writing each other. Hillary is looking to become a lawyer. She goes to Stanford, not because she wants to, but becase the rest of her family went there (and it's co-ed). Leona moves to Miami, and C.C. couldn't be happier to be on her own. Hillary takes part in the typical college activities and is involved in many civil rallies, but doesn't seem to be enjoying it. C.C. is surviving, but can't get a job (read ‘gig’). She auditions all over New York, but gives up her ambitions for Broadway (or so she says), and gets a job at a nightclub.

Hillary surprises C.C. by moving to New York. She says she doesn't know why, she just walked out on everything, including her money. C.C. takes her in…to her apartment which is a bit less than a few (two) rooms in an open floor plan, and a bathroom (oh yeah, and a terrace), but no heat. Hillary reveals to C.C. that for the first time in her life she feels like she can live her life the way she wants to instead of in the controlling grips of her parents.

C.C. is working as a singing telegram when she meets John Pierce (John Heard) who is the director of a theatre company. He invites C.C. to audition, and she accepts. A slight bit of flirtation passes between John and Hillary as the women dart off to a rent strike Hillary is attending for the ACLU. C.C. ends up with the lead role in John's production.

At a cast party for John's play, Hillary and John hook up, and C.C. is upset. Both Hillary and C.C. really like John, but John's radar is set to Hillary. C.C. acts as though it is fine with her, but it's not. Nevertheless, they remain friends.

Hillary's father gets sick an she goes to San Francisco. While there, she meets another man, Michael Essex (James Read). Her father takes a turn for the worse, and she has to stay in San Francisco. Back in New York, C.C. starts seeing John seriously, and her acting career starts to take off. Hillary tells C.C. in a letter that she has gotten married to Michael Essex, who turns out to have been her father's lawyer.

C.C. marries John back in New York and begins to be very successful in the theatre. Hillary and her husband go to New York to visit. The two women start to see the different directions their lives have taken from each other, and they think they are growing apart. C.C. accuses Hillary of being jealous of her marriage to John. Personally, the two friends are torm up over the fall-out. C.C. still writes, but Hillary sends her letters back.

As for their respective marriages, John is leaving C.C. because he doesn't want the fast life where her career is taking her. Hillary comes home early one day to find Essex eating breakfast in his pajamas with another woman. C.C.'s career is going downhill, and she goes to Calafornia. Hillary goes to see her. C.C. is furious with Hillary, but they end up laughing.

Hillary is pregnant with Essex's child, but he ran off with the other woman. C.C. gets engaged to Hillary's gynecologist, Richard (Frank Buxton), but returns to New York for a chance at a comeback in showbusiness. She gets a part in a production with John's company.

Several years later, C.C. is persuing a comeback (again) career. Hillary is being run ragged, and becomes very sick. The doctor says it's viral cardiomyopathy. Hillary researches her disease and realizes it is terminal. She asks C.C. to accompany her and her daughter, Victoria (Grace Johnston) to her beachhouse. Hillary is scared; she knows she's going to die from this. One day not too much later, Hillary collapses on the floor and we catch up to where the movie began. C.C. goes to the hospital. Hillary says she wants to leave the hospital…she doesn't want to die there. C.C. gets her discharged so she can go backto the beachhouse for her last days.

Hillary's will gives custody of Victoria to C.C., and they are both glad to have each other…and Pouncer the Cat, too!

WHAT I THINK

I can draw some parallels to my own life from thisi movie. Some of those parallels have even gone as far as to be realized; others not so much.

I have always been a performer, but never one to be introducing myself to strangers. Ironic, ya' think? I love being on stage (never tried film), where I'm told I'm very good. That's one reason, I suppose, why I love it. I have been part of several productions, many for high school, and a few outside of that venue; though never for money. I've always wondered what that would be like. Would it affect the quality of my performance? But enough about me, let's go to the movie…

I will first mention the music, as it is an integral part of the story. Although not a musical or an opera, the career of the main character involves her singing. This is remindful of another great movie, A Star is Born, best version being the 1976 film starring Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson…apologies to Janet Gaynor and Judy Garland. You just didn't do much for me. This is a love story. You've got to do something pretty special and work darn hard to get me to like a love story. With songs written by great people such as Cole Porter and Randy Newman, what is there to criticise? And to top it off, get Bette Midler to sing (Mayim Bailik would get my praise as well, but her singing voice was dubbed for the movie…sorry) and you can't go wrong. Another soundtrack I highly recommend for purchase.

I've narrowed the story as a whole down to two points: A) Coping with all that life can throw at you and B) the power of friendship. C.C. Bloom has a rough time in showbusiness (as I imagine all performers do, amateur and professional), but she keeps a positive attitude and doesn't project negativity when in the company of strangers. This is where her philosophies cross paths. If you appear happy, those around you tend to follow suit.

Hillary's life goes in a completely different direction. She is successful and financially rich. She was born with money, her job provides her money, and she attracts money. Very rarely, though, does this nurture good, meaningful relationships, as is seen by the jerk to whom she ends up with, and eventually divorces.

Perhaps the theme of friendship is even more the focus than anything else in the story. I have had only a few friendships that come close to the one between C.C. and Hillary. The only feeling I find more satisfying than a true, lasting friendship, is when I can make someone else happy. I have been handed issues that render my acting and singing career doubtful, but when I was able to perform, the experience was undescribable. In one rare instance, I was given the opportunity to perfrom in front of an audience of sick children at a Children's Hospital. I could see that for an hour and a half, their medical problems had been shoved into a deep dark closet. A smile can mean so much…oh, yeah…back to the review…

I was happily struck with surprise at the end of the story when Hillary asks to be discharged from the hospital. She says it's because she doesn't want her daughter to see her and remember her like that. Reality will tell you, who wants to spend your last hours of life in that environment. Hillary knows they can't save her life, so she decides to be as happy as possible when she passes away; surrounded by her lifelong best friend, her daughter, and the beach which she finds so comforting. That's the way I way want it to happen (with the addition of my cats cuddled around me).

MEMORABLE DIALOGUE & NOTEABLE ENCOUNTERS

Finally, a short list of quotes and verbal exchanges I think are worth repeating.
You may recognize some if you've seen the movie, but these are my own picks, not ones that are particularly famous:

• airport attendant : Even in the modern world, planes don't land in San Francisco when it's foggy.
• leona : C'mon, what're you a camel or somethin'? I gotta have a sip.
• c. c. : Who cares what she looks like? All she knows how to do is walk on her hands.
• hillary : Personally, I think walking on your hands is kind of creepy.
• hillary : You just happen to be the most facinating person I've ever met in my entire life!
• c. c. :[writing to Hillary] I was just about to commit suicide by taking an overdose of vitamin A when your letter arrived telling me I'm a genius and don't lose heart.
• c. c. :[singing "I've Still Got My Health"] ♫My face is my fortune, that's why I'm totally broke♫
• hillary : [looking at a homeless woman clutching a bottle, who has fallen to the ground] She could be dead.
  c. c. : Nah, if she were dead, she'd have dropped the bottle.
• pierce : The Times says ‘C.C. Bloom's performance is both promising and purposeful.’
• pierce : [after being slapped in the face by C.C.] What did you do that for?
  c. c. : This is the happiest moment of my life. I don't ever want you to forget it.
• maitre d' :[C.C. enters the restaurant. Speaking to seated patrons.] Excuse me, there's someone bigger than you here tonight.
• hillary : I'm going to buy a wrench.
  essex : A wrench? Why?
  hillary : We don't have one.
  essex : Well…super…sounds good.
• 1^st elderly man : Who is that?
  2^nd elderly man : C.C. Bloom.
  1^st elderly man : So everyone should look.
• leona : Why do you think I'm living down here in Florida?
  c. c. : I give up. You like the sun.
  leona : I don't give a shit about the sun. I'm here because it's peaceful, that's why.
• hillary : That's my robe.
• hillary : You did everything you said you were going to do…everything!
• [In the delivery room, Hillary is going into labor. C.C. faints and everyone rushes over, leaving Hillary unattended on the gurney]
  hillary : Somebody?…Anybody?…Oh, you've gotta be joking!
• hillary : Better put those [flowers] in water before they die.
• c. c. :[to Hillary] You're not dead yet, so stop living as if you are.
• victoria : Is the Hollywood Bowl really a bowl?
• victoria : C.C., if I go with you, can I bring my cat?

TRIVIA

Here is some useless (to most of us) trivia from this movie⇒

• C.C.'s full name is Cecilia Carol Bloom

RATING

Here is my personal rating of this movie. This rating is out of ten meows.

¹⁰/₁₀

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