Beaches Totally Explained

Everything about Beaches totally explained

Beaches (also known as Forever Friends), is a 1988 Academy Award-nominated movie adapted by Mary Agnes Donoghue from the novel Beaches by Iris Rainer Dart. It was directed by Garry Marshall, and stars Bette Midler, Barbara Hershey, John Heard, James Read, Spalding Gray, Lainie Kazan, Mayim Bialik and Marcie Leeds.
The film's theme song "Wind Beneath My Wings" went on to win the best song Grammy in 1989.
This film is one of the most often cited examples of the so-called "chick flick". Tagline: Friends come and go but there's always one you're stuck with for life.

Story

The film begins with singer CC Bloom (Bette Midler) receiving a note during a rehearsal for her upcoming concert, that obviously contains distressing news about a loved one. She leaves the rehearsal in a panic and tries frantically to travel to her friend's side, however, we're not told why at that point. Unable to get a flight to San Francisco because of fog, she rents a car and decides to drive overnight from Los Angeles. Upset and on edge, she starts to remember how she met Hillary, beginning with when they first met.
   Rich girl Hillary Whitney (Barbara Hershey) and child performer Cecilia Carol "CC" Bloom (Bette Midler) meet under the boardwalk on the beach at Atlantic City, New Jersey. Hillary is lost and CC is hiding from her overbearing stage mother (Lainie Kazan). They become fast friends, growing up and bonding through letters to support each other.
   A grown up Hillary (Barbara Hershey) goes on to study law at Stanford Law School as is her family's tradition and becomes a human rights lawyer. In the meantime, now-adult CC's (Bette Midler) burlesque career starts to take off. They write to each other regularly and give updates on their lives.
   Then one night, Hillary shows up at the dive bar where CC is performing, having travelled to New York on an impulse. She is tired of feeling trapped in her life and feels suffocated by her family's expectations of her. She soon gets a job with the ACLU, whereas CC now makes money by performing birthday singing telegrams, usually dressed in a rabbit or chicken suit. While she's staying with CC in her apartment, they become closer and even vie for the love of the same man (John Heard). But a cloud comes over Hillary's life in the form of her father becoming ill, and she's forced to return to San Francisco to look after him.
   After her father passes away, Hillary marries his lawyer, Michael Essex (James Read). CC marries John, her producer, and the bond between the two women starts to decline. Hillary and Michael return to New York to see CC on Broadway, by which time she's become a popular vaudeville act. CC finds out that Hillary has quit being a lawyer. The friends have an argument in Bloomingdales department store, with CC angry that Hillary has just given up on her dreams, and Hillary responding that CC has become no more than a "pretentious, social climber" who is obsessed with her career. The two women part ways, and unbeknownst to each other, they both feel incredible sadness over the loss of their friendship. CC tries to reconnect with Hillary, but Hillary throws herself into being a dutiful, but unchallenged wife.
   However, the unions for both women are anything but blissful. The relationship between CC and John eventually deteriorates when John tells CC that her self-centeredness and obsession with her career has him feeling left behind and he asks for a divorce. Upset at the thought of her marriage failing, CC turns to her mother (whom she calls by her given name "Leona") one day on the beach. Her mother tells her that she's given up a lot for her daughter and that she must live her life and take care of herself. CC hears the truth for the first time when her mother tells her the effect that her selfishness has had on those closest to her.
   Meanwhile, Hillary, while believing that her marriage is strong, returns home from a trip earlier than expected. She enters the kitchen and sees her husband having breakfast with another woman, who is wearing one of her bathrobes. Michael, shocked at seeing his wife, reaches for the woman's hand, wordlessly confirming that he's been having an affair.
   Later, the women reunite after Hillary divorces her husband. And they discover that they've been secretly jealous of each other for years, without realizing it. Hillary is upset that she's none of the talent or charisma that makes CC be noticed, but as CC is quick to retaliate, Hillary stands out for reasons that CC has always been deeply envious of - she's both beautiful and intelligent. The two then realize that their feud could have been avoided by honest communication, and an appreciation of each others most recognized qualities. Hillary tells CC that she's pregnant, but also that she caught Michael cheating on her, and that he wants nothing to do with the child he's fathered, planning to marry his mistress instead. Hillary admits that she's already decided to keep the baby, and raise it as a single parent, a decision that wins her much admiration from the feisty and always independent CC. CC promises she'll stay and help her out. She leaves for a short time because she's promised a lead part in a new musical, but she does return for the birth and faints in the delivery room, alluding to the recurrent theme of CC stealing the attention from Hillary. Hillary has a daughter, whom she names Victoria Cecilia (Grace Johnston).
   When Victoria is a young girl, Hillary finds herself easily exhausted and breathless; a state she attributes to her busy schedule as an attorney. But when she collapses at work and is rushed to hospital, she's diagnosed with viral cardiomyopathy, a debilitating cardiac illness, requiring a heart transplant if she's to live. As donor hearts of her tissue type are almost impossible to come by, Hillary learns more about the illness, it becomes clear that she'll most likely die as a result of it, and won't live to see her daughter grow up. This plunges her into a state of depression, which she inadvertently takes out on CC, who she sees as "having energy, and who is fun", in comparison to her now debilitated state.
   When CC agrees to accompany Hillary and Victoria to the beach house during some free time off after her album, she locks horns with Victoria, who sees CC as an interruption in the life of her and her mother. Gradually, both come to appreciate one another.
   Eventually, Hillary moves out of the anger and depression, and begins to accept her prognosis bravely. When CC makes a comment to Hillary that she knows everything that there's to know about her, Hillary replies under her breath, that she's "counting on it".
   Shortly after, Hillary collapses yet again. CC races to the hospital in San Francisco after driving all night from Los Angeles. Hillary, close to death, tells CC that her one last wish is for Victoria to not see her in that state. CC arranges to get Hillary discharged from hospital so that she can spend her last hours saying goodbye to Victoria. They return to the beach house where they spent their last summer, and CC does all she can to make the most of her best friend's final moments of life.
   On the beach, CC is seen attending to Hillary, in a chaise longue with an oxygen tank at her side. It is then assumed that Hillary dies, with CC by her side. After having met on a beach, the two friends are forced to say goodbye to each other on one as well. The camera then cuts from the beach to the dark closed doors of a church, which open to waiting black limousines parked out front, alluding to Hillary's funeral. After the funeral, CC reveals to Victoria that her mother wanted her to live with CC. CC admits that she's very selfish and has no idea what kind of a mother she'll make, but she tells her, "there's nothing in the world that I want more, than to be with you". She then takes Victoria into her arms and the two console each other in their grief. Though there are other relatives who want to take Victoria (with the exception of Michael, still unwilling to accept his responsibilities as a parent), Victoria decides to go with CC.
   CC returns to the Hollywood Bowl to complete the concert that she was forced to postpone because of Hillary's illness, and we learn that CC Bloom now enjoys almost iconic status as a performer. After the show, she leaves the stage with Victoria in hand, and begins reciting tales of when she first met Hillary. Just as Hillary had hoped she would. Victoria is enchanted with her new guardian's anecdotes.
   "So what else did you do?" the little girl looks up to CC in curiosity.
   "Whatever they told me not to!" CC beams, comfortable in her new role, as the movie ends.

Nominations and awards

Included on the soundtrack was Bette Midler's performance of "Wind Beneath My Wings", which became an immediate smash hit.
It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Art Direction (Albert Brenner and Garrett Lewis).
The beach house in the movie is located in Crystal Cove State Park.

Further Information

Get more info on 'Beaches'.

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