Beaches (Special Edition)

As special as the everlasting friendship it celebrates, this Special Edition DVD lets you relive BEACHES and all its touching and funny moments, and includes outstanding never-before-seen bonus materials. When the irrepressible C.C. Bloom (Bette Midler) and the shy and proper Hillary Whitney (Barbara Hershey) first meet under the boardwalk at the beach, all the 11-year-olds have in common is the need for a best friend. Worlds apart in lifestyle and location, their friendship ebbs and flows through a lifetime of highs and lows, career changes, marriages, jealousy, and more. From the boardwalk in Atlantic City to the beach house on the Pacific, BEACHES will remind you of what being a true friend means.

Garry Marshall's 1988 drama about a 30-year friendship between two women, one wealthy (Barbara Hershey) and the other (Bette Midler) seeking her fortune in show business, is well written (based on the novel by Iris Rainer Dart) and nicely textured in its contrast between the characters' separate destinies. When Hershey becomes ill with cancer, the film takes a predictably sentimental course, yet Marshall brings out the best in both actresses and catches some very fine drama. The film is a little too long, perhaps, but overall it is a fine experience. --Tom Keogh