Movie · 1988 · Comedy, Drama · 2h 3m · PG-13 · English
Curator score: 4.3/10 (59K ratings)
Some Friendships Last Forever
Overview
A privileged rich debutante and a cynical struggling entertainer share a turbulent, but strong childhood friendship over the years.
Ratings
Curator score: 4.3/10
IMDb: 7.0/10
Letterboxd: 3.61/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 41%
Metacritic: 46
TMDB: 6.7/10
Director
Garry Marshall
Production
Touchstone Pictures, All Girl Productions, Silver Screen Partners IV
Cast
Bette Midler, Barbara Hershey, John Heard, Spalding Gray, Lainie Kazan, James Read, Grace Johnston, Mayim Bialik, Marcie Leeds, Carol Williard, Allan Kent, Phil Leeds, Lynda Goodfriend, Nikki Plant, Michael French, Robert Ball, Frank Campanella, Diane Frazen, Michael Elias, Patrick Richwood
Curator Review
Verdict
A glossy, old-school tearjerker about female friendship, ambition, class difference, and the way life pulls people apart and back together. It’s melodramatic by design, but the performances and emotional payoff make it a strong watch if you’re in the mood for a big, sincere cry.
Best for
viewers who like emotional melodramas
fans of decades-spanning friendships
people seeking a classic weepie
audiences who enjoy performance-driven character drama
Skip if
you dislike overt sentimentality
you want subtle, restrained drama
you’re allergic to manipulative cry scenes
you prefer plot-heavy stories over relationship-focused ones
Overview
Beaches is unabashedly built to make you feel everything, and it mostly earns that ambition. The film leans into the rhythms of a long friendship: childhood bonding, adult distance, resentment, loyalty, and the kind of love that survives bad timing and bad decisions. It’s a very specific kind of studio-era emotional storytelling, polished, accessible, and not remotely shy about the tears it wants from you.
Worth noting
What gives it staying power is the central relationship. The movie understands how female friendship can be both deeply intimate and maddeningly complicated, especially when class, career, and life choices keep shifting the balance. It’s broad, sometimes corny, and occasionally overstates its hand, but the sincerity is hard to resist.
Bottom line
If you like your dramas with big music cues, big feelings, and a final stretch that aims straight for the heart, this delivers. If you need irony or distance, it will probably feel like too much. But for viewers open to a classic melodrama, it’s a durable and genuinely affecting crowd-pleaser.
Top Letterboxd reviews
ginger● (3.5★) · 962 likes
they should have been lesbians
Wood (2★) · 841 likes
Movies your mom likes cinematic universe.
chris (3.5★) · 738 likes
The B in LGBTQ actually stands for Beaches.
sam (4★) · 683 likes
JACKIE: No. I didn’t thank the fucking dirt for sending us a brain-damaged bear. What is even happening right now? What is wrong with all of you?
TAISSA: It’s fine, guys. She doesnt’ have to–
JACKIE: Oh, shut up, Tai. You were a part of it, too. I mean, are we really not going to talk about this? We just how at the moon and have fucking orgies now? And somehow I’m the one who did something wrong?
BEN SCOTT:… more
kenny · 584 likes
I don’t know why my mom loves these emotionally devastating movies😭😭😭