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Weekly Archive > DVD
of the Day > 04/29/05
The Wind Beneath My
Overly Sentimentalized Wings
by dennis sampson
Beaches (Special Edition)
Mary Agnes Donoghue
Based on the novel by Iris Rainer Dart
 
Raising the schmaltziness bar for chick flicks, Beaches follows the undying friendship between CC Bloom (Bette Midler) and Hillary Whitney (Barbara Hershey) through all the clichés of a story whose sole seeming purpose is to make its viewer cry. Working inside the confines of that goal, and judging from the film's popularity with its target audience, the movie is effective. It establishes a convincing relationship between the women that spans three decades and then comes crashing down in an ending of terrible tragedy. And while said ending is indeed poignant, the script is so manipulative in setting up for the final punch that the film somehow manages to elicit feelings of sorrow (for its characters) and anger (at the filmmakers). Director Gary Marshall's commentary is very typical actor-praiseworthy heavy, but the deleted scenes offer deeper shadings of its lead characters, supplying them with more life than the story itself.
Beaches (Special Edition)
Buena Vista Home Entertainment
PG-13; 123 min.
$19.99
Buy it now for only $17.99 (save 10%)
Dennis Sampson is a commercial production coordinator and unproduced screenwriter. He currently lives in Los Angeles with his better half, Susan, and their dog Tripp.
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