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Beaches (also known as Forever Friends), is a 1988 Academy Award-nominated movie adapted by Mary Agnes Donoghue from the novel of the same name 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 Grammys for Record of the Year and Song of the Year at the Grammy Awards of 1990.

This film is one of the most often cited examples of the "chick flick".

Nominations and Awards

Included on the soundtrack was Bette Midler's performance of "Wind Beneath My Wings", which became an immediate smash hit. The song went on to win Grammys for Record of the Year and Song of the Year in 1990.

It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Art Direction (Albert Brenner and Garrett Lewis).

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 are 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 think about her best friend Hillary, beginning with how 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 is forced to return to San Francisco to look after him.