Beaches (film) On a hot summer day, a remarkable and unlikely friendship begins on the beach at Atlantic City. Eleven-year-olds C.C. Bloom and Hilary Whitney are from different worlds; brash streetwise C.C. wants to be a famous singing star, while Hilary is a proper young lady from San Francisco. Although they go their separate ways, they vow to remain friends, and through letters they share each other’s hopes, dreams, and frustrations. Years later their lives again entwine when Hilary, now a lawyer, moves in with rising actress CC. Their friendship is strained when C.C.’s director, John—with whom she is in love—falls for Hilary. When Hilary returns to California to take care of her ailing father, John turns to C.C. Hilary marries another lawyer who eventually leaves her. The strength of Hilary’s and C.C.’s relationship sustains them through the successes and disappointments of their marriages and careers, through the birth of Hilary’s daughter, and ultimately through a crisis that tests their love and teaches them the true meaning of friendship. Premiered in New York on December 21, 1988; general release on January 13, 1989. Directed by Garry Marshall. A Touchstone film. 120 min. Stars Bette Midler (C.C. Bloom), Barbara Hershey (Hilary Whitney Essex), John Heard (John Pierce), Lainie Kazan (Leona Bloom), Spalding Gray (Dr. Richard Milstein), Mayim Bialik (C.C., age 11). Filmed at over 42 locations in Los Angeles and New York. Released on video in 1989.
